Welcome to Washington
by Scandallover1
Summary: Newly elected California Senator Mellie Grant is about to take on Washington. With her family by her side is their anything that can stop her on her rise to the top?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey guys so why I am writing a new story when I don't have time for it I don't know , but I guess just really want to. I've been flirting with this idea for a while and I've just decided to go ahead with this story. So this is a Melitz cannon story that will start at their visit to Big Jerry's house in Santa Barbra. Now this story will be Melitz and I really hope it will be amazing because I feel that this is the kind of story that will really be able to be the kind of story that has lots of chapters because the way I see it the story will take place over probably the course of 20 years. Now this firs chapter is the longest I ever wrote, it's over 4400 words. Anyway, I hope you all like this story and please please please review because I want to know if this is a good idea. Enjoy

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She was in that almost awake dream land sleep when she felt his wet lips plant a soft kiss on her forehead. She let out a soft moan as she rolled over in the soft bed slowly opening her eyes and smiling as she saw her husband's deep blue eyes looking at her with so much love and affection that she felt herself fall even more in love with her husband.

"Good morning he said softly as he climbed on top of her adjusting the covers and leaning down slowly moving his lips towards her

"Good morning" she mumbled before moving up and meeting his soft wet lips in a passionate kiss. As he continued to kiss her he slipped his tongue into her mouth while she ran her hands up his head burying them in his curly locks. As she continued to move hands within his hair she only added to his extreme case of bedhead. Even with his hair messy he was still ungodly handsome. With his curly hair, chiseled jaw, rock hard abs and deep blue eye's he was one of the hottest men she had ever seen. It wasn't only his looks but instead his personality that had sold him on Fitzgerald Grant. Fitz had shown her more love than she had ever thought possible , he was the kindest sweetest most genuine person who had helped her once again regain her confidence after the whole fiasco with her father that had left her feeling unwanted and unloved.

It had all started when she was 15 and she got home from boarding school only to find all of her father's things gone. At first she just thought he was on a business trip but instead she later found out via Rose the maid that her father had been screwing his secretary and now the girl was pregnant with their love child. At that moment Mellie's heart had broken, she had always loved her father more than her mother and this was how her father was repaying her … by leaving her for his whore. As mad as she was at her father she was also mad at her mother for not having the guts to tell her herself, instead sending the maid to do it for her. Looking back at it now Mellie had realized that it was fitting that she was told this way considering how often her mother pawned her off to the help during her childhood. Mellie still remembered driving to her father's office and storming inside. As she refused to sit down his office because she was mad she saw the pictures of him and some blond whore. When she began to scream and cry he didn't even cry instead he offered her money before saying "I'm sorry Melody but this is my family now" After this moment Mellie lost all of her self-esteem , she felt worthless , she felt like she would never compare to stupid Harmony. Luckily though when she met Fitz she began to feel beter about herself due to him telling her multiple times a day how beautiful and amazing she is. Fitz had filled that void in her life with love and happiness and for that she was eternally grateful.

As he continued to kiss her she felt him begin to grind his harness against her wet center. He was teasing her and she could hardly handle it. Suddenly she heard Fitz's fathers booming voice echo throughout the house "Son time to get up"

"Your father" Mellie mumbled as he down her bare body in between the valley of her breasts.

"Ignore him maybe he'll go away" Fitz said as he moved father and father down , his tongue finally reaching its destination casing Mellie's back to arch as she tried to handle the feeling he was giving her.

"Stop fooling like a pair of teenagers and put some clothes on I need you both down here in 5" Jerry boomed as Fitz grunted in annoyance. While Mellie kept her rocky relationship with her father a secret It was no secret how much Fitz hated his father … they could never be in the same room for more than 10 minutes before fighting.

"Ooh I do not like that man right now" Mellie said as she grew annoyed at the thought of cutting short her alone time with Fitz

"I never like him" Fitz said as Mellie giggled, partly from what he said and partly from the tickling sensation his tongue was giving her. "Fitz" she giggled as she began to squirm in the bed.

"I am trying to get you pregnant … be quiet and let me work" he said as he began to kiss and suck on her neck.

"But your fathers right downstairs" Mellie said starting to feel a little awkward to think that they were having sex in the same house her father in law was in. Then again they had had sex in much weirded places.

"Hurry it up" Jerry bellowed

"Coming" Fitz yelled back

"What does he want?" Fitz asked in an exasperated tone

"I don't know" she mumbled as she continued to kiss him. Suddenly she felt the feeling of his entry as he moved hard and fast trying to not make them too late. Within seconds they were both lying on the bed basking in their afterglow while the smell of sweat and passion filled the air. As much as she wanted to stay in his arms all day Mellie finally peeled away from him and got up of the bed not even mothering to cover up her fully nude body.

"Come back" Fitz said as he reached out and grabbed her arm

"We gotta go downstairs baby" she said as she pulled away and headed to the huge walk in closet where she unzipped her Prada luggage grabbing a pair of black lace panties and a matching Bra. As she clipped on the bra and pulled on the panties she saw Fitz walk up behind her wearing only his boxers. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly before letting his hand wander down farther and farther.

"If you rip another pair of my panties so help you god" Mellie said

"What ... are you not saying that you like me wiping of your panties?"

"I like what you do after you take them off but the whole going to Victoria secret every week gets a little old and a lot expensive" Mellie teased even though they both knew they had more money than they knew what to do with

"Well I think that it is a worthwhile investment" He said placing a kiss in the nape of her neck before pulling away. And heading to his side of the closet where he grabbed a baby blue short sleeve shirt and khaki pants. Mellie pulled on a Missoni shirt she had gotten in London and some black jeans. While Fitz slipped on his Sperry's Mellie decided to be adventurous and go barefoot. As they walked out of the room Fitz wrapped his arm around her.

"I can't wait to get you back up to bed the second this is over" he said in a seductive whisper

"You see this is exactly why I'm late to work every day" she teased as they walked down the massive staircase towards the foyer where Jerry was standing talking to some guy who looked like a creepy wolf Blitzer impersonator. Jerry turned and saw them immediately.

"Oh here meet your Kingmaker Cyrus Beene – a genius who spins average men into candidates and candidates into gold and if we can just pry him out of his ivory tower long enough he's going to put you both in the California's governor's mansion mark my words" Jerry said as Mellie shook the man's hand

"I thought we weren't even forming an exploratory committee for three years" Fitz pointed out confused at what was happening

"That was before you moved up to the front of the line … word on the street is that Stevenson is about to drop out"

"Well he's tall like you said … that's good nice head of hair … also where are we on schooling?" Cyrus asked as he uncomfortably circled the couple inspecting them

"Oh Yale, Rhodes Scholar, navy, Harvard law and "

"That'll do" Cyrus cut of "The wife's perfect"

"Thank you Mr. Beene" Mellie said as she began to blush, she quietly wrapped her arms around Fitz who still seemed shocked and confused by what was happening.

"What is this?" Fitz asked confused at why Mellie was acting so excited

"I think it's our first step to the Whitehouse baby" Mellie said with a smile as she stood on her tippy toes and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"That's the spirit …. Now why don't you to go get properly cleaned up while Cyrus and I get something to eat" Jerry suggested as he left the room.

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10 minutes later:

Mellie stood in the bathroom as she threw her clothes into the hamper before pulling on a light fluffy robe and heading into the bedroom. Fitz was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. He had been surprisingly quiet since the incident downstairs.

"Honey are you okay?" Mellie asked as she sat on the edge of the big fluffy bed the robe moving farther and farther up with every movement

"I'm fine" he said not looking at her

"Are you sure , I mean you just found out that you could be the next governor of the state and you don't seem the least bit excited" She pointed out as she picked up his heavy arm and placed his hand on her knee.

"I would be excited but it's just I … I really don't like the idea of my father helping with this … I mean I just don't want to be indented to him again" Fitz said suddenly realizing what he had said hoping that she wouldn't notice

"Again .. Why are you already indebted to him?" Mellie asked as Fitz felt his stomach churn

"Well you know … I wasn't the most qualified to Harvard and he pulled some strings" Fits said hating that he had to lie to Mellie

"Come on sweetie … you were plenty qualified besides I really don't think that him helping you get into Harvard is some big debt"

"I know I just … I want to be my own man and win this on my own"

"Okay well you father brought Mr. Beene here so can we at least listen to what he has to say … please?" Mellie said begging slightly

"Fine I'll listen but I'm not agreeing to anything" He said stiffly

"Sure … now can we not talk about your father for the next 10 minutes?" she asked seductively as she untied the robe and let it slip of her body. The second Fitz saw this the bulge in his pants began to form as he Picked her up and carried her into the bathroom setting her down on the counter while he turned on the shower and removed his own clothing. The second the water became hot he pulled her back into his arms and entered the huge glass shower. The second they were inside he slammed her against the wall and decided it would be good idea to get dirty before they got clean. Finally when they had don't the dirty they decided it was time to get clean. As Fitz grabbed the soap he began to rub in all of his favorite part of his wife's body. When they were finally done Mellie walked out of the shower and grabbed two big fluffy white towels as she began to rub the towel down the her husband's chest. Even though the fluffy towel she could still feel his abs. When they were finally dry Mellie grabbed a crisp white collared shirt a brown sweater and a pair of skinny blue jeans. Once she was done getting changed she saw Fitz digging through his bag looking for a shirt to wear. Mellie quickly grabbed his black turtle neck and handed it to him.

"Here I think you need to wear this since I kind of marked you up" Mellie said pointing to the purple mark on his neck

"Oh you naughty girl … you will pay for this" He teased

"Oh I bet I will" She said with a smirk as she walked away but not before he quickly smacked her ass

Finally Fitz pulled on his turtle neck and quickly ran a comb through his hair before they headed downstairs to the living room where Cyrus was next to an easel with a map of California. Big jerry was sitting on a sofa and looked very annoyed for them taking so long. Mellie and Fitz quickly sat down on the sofa, Fitz rested his hand on her knee while she rested her arm on his shoulder.

"Okay so to win California you need the full khachigan hook. Thanks to Senator Grant's generous and continuous farm subsidies you'll inherit the hicks pretty easily add these U.F.O spotting desert trash districts. Along with the defense industry dependent inland empire and you lock up everything from Bakersfield to Riverside.

"Lord knows they love me in the south" Jerry gloated

"They used to ... demos have changed drastically , a new wave of immigrants are less likely to cozy up to richy richy and snow white over here … no offence "

"None taken" Fitz said with a smirk

"Well you beter learn Spanish, Rapido" Jerry said sarcastically

"Please don't … voter can always spot a phony, you can't be who you're not?" Cyrus explained

"How do you accept we connect with them?" Mellie asked

"You don't … ignore them" Cyrus said as everyone became confused

"What do you mean ignore them? What the hell kind of strategy is that?" Jerry barked

"It's simple … You're a war hero with a strong military record. We play that up, get you're navy buddies to stump on your behalf and we link together all the districts around San Diego Chock – full of retired military. Then we swing up to the O.C that big fat grouper at the end of the hook" Cyrus said excitingly

"No" Fitz said flatly as Mellie became confused at what was wrong with the plan

"What do you mean no? The man's right … spot on!" Jerry said

"I'm not running as a war hero … it's that simple" Fitz stated

"Fitzgerald, other than name recognition, It's all you've got" Cyrus pointed out

"So we wait until the next cycle in the meantime I expand my resume" Fitz suggested

"No, you won't find a field weaker than this, it's now or never" Jerry pointed out

"Have you heard a word of what I just said?" Fitz snapped at Jerry

"Fitz I'm sure we can…" Mellie said softly

"Son … do what your told" Jerry interrupted

"Running on my military experience is off limits end of story" Fitz said as he angrily got up and walked out of the room. Jerry quickly stormed after him leaving Mellie sitting there speechless.

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30 minutes later:

It had been half an hour since Fitz had stormed out of the room and the tensions in the house were higher than ever. Mellie could hear Jerry and Fitz's screams echoing throughout the house as Cyrus began to look more and more impatient.

"I'll be right back" Mellie said as she quickly scurried out of the room down the hall into the sunroom where Jerry and Fitz were fighting with each other

"You have a future thanks to me" Jerry snarled

"I think Cyrus Beene is about to leave, quit even, I don't know what to do, Big Jerry maybe you can…" Mellie said as she couldn't figure out what to do

"I won't run on a lie" Fitz snapped

"What else have you accomplished? The only other thing you have going for you is that you have my son. That's it. That's all you are … my son, not as smart, not as interesting but my son all the same I made you, I can destroy you! So you will do what you're told that's an order" Jerry barked

"Grants don't take Order's" Fitz snapped as he stormed out of the room

"Don't walk away from me!" Jerry barked after a second of shock Mellie scurried back to the living room only to find that Cyrus had already left. Mellie quickly chased after him.

"It's just a little disagreement, a kerfuffle, a father/son thing."

"I don't do family drama Mrs. Grant, I have enough of that at home with my wife" Cyrus said as he continued to leave

"But"

"I'm a political warrior, I slash I burn, I kill, you want him to be governor? You want him to run this dam country one day? I will hand you that on a silver platter. You want his hand held you want his nose wiped or someone to hug him and tell him that he's great … do it yourself, that's your job" he explained

"My job?" she asked slightly confused and slightly offended

"You're the wife"

"I'm a lawyer, I'm a partner at a law firm"

"You have to give that up, they told you that right …. You are a woman so it is your new job to stand by and support your man"

"I'm sorry but that is incredibly sexist Mr. Beene … it is not my job to be a housewife and it is certainly not my job to listen to someone as shallow and closed minded as you" she snapped through gritted teeth as Cyrus looked at her shocked

"I would suggest that you should run because you clearly seem to want this more than your husband but you will never run because you are just an accessory, your ornamental" he said as he got into his car and sped off. Normally Mellie would feel horrible if somebody said something like that but today she felt angry, disgusted and slightly empowered. She quickly walked back into the house and found Fitz sitting in the office nursing a scotch.

"What that your second one today?" Mellie asked

"Are you seriously going to give me shit about this right now" He said in a harsh tone

"Okay hold up, I get it your mad but taking it out on me is not okay"

"I know I'm sorry I just … I can't stand my father" He admitted as he finished off the glass. Before he could pour another one Mellie stopped him.

"Okay how about instead of drinking ourselves into oblivion we can go out and get some diner" Mellie suggested as Fitz agreed because he needed some excuse to get out of the house and away from his father.

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15 minutes later:

Mellie and Fitz sat across the table from each other at some greasy Chinese place.

"You okay?" Mellie asked knowing that Fitz must have been hurt by his father's comments … even though he hated his father he was still deep down afraid of not meeting his father's expectations.

"Yeah I'm fine I just … I don't want to talk about it" he said softly

"Okay fine … I called Cyrus Beene sexist" Mellie blurted out as Fitz looked stunned

"Seriously?"

"Yeah … he was going on about how I had to give up my career and about how I'm ornamental and I don't know it just lit a spark in me"

"Wow … did he seriously say that?"

"Yeah he did …. And I mean I guess it makes sense but…"

"Wait a second Mel's are you kidding? You're 32 and you're a partner at a law firm, your unbelievably successful and I never want you to give that up okay … and anyway I don't know about this whole Governor thing, I know you want it but I just don't … I mean it's just I want to help people but I'm just not sure if politics is the right thing for me… I'm sorry"

"Don't apologize, besides I think I blew it with Cyrus Beene … anyway why you don't want to run on your military record, I mean I'm just curious" she asked as he tensed up

"Because I didn't enlist for the right reasons, I enlisted because I wanted to spite my father not because I wanted to serve my country and I now realize that this was wrong"

"I get that ... even so you're still a war hero and you're still my hero" She said with a smile

"Your hero that makes me sound like Prince charming" he said with a chuckle

"You are my prince charming" she said as she leaned in and kissed him

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45 minutes later:

When they arrived back at the palatial estate they pulled into the 5 car garage before entering the massive home. Built right on the beach it had been in Fitz's family for generations. It was a gorgeous home that was one of the only places that Fitz had good memories of because he spent a lot of his time here in this house with his mother who was his best friend and only refuge from his father until she died when he was 15. Her dying was the hardest thing that Fitz had ever gone through. As he thought about this he began to feel tired so he headed upstairs to go to sleep. Mellie wanted some water so she headed to the kitchen instead. On her way back she passed by the den where Jerry was sitting next to a roaring fire.

"Ah Mellie come here" he slurred as he pated the spot next to him on the sofa. Mellie was about to agree when she suddenly began to felt sick, it was the second time it had happened today and she had a pretty good idea of what it must mean.

"I … I'm not feeling too well, I think I'm going to go upstairs, goodnight Jerry" she said as she scurried upstairs before stopping in one of the bathrooms and throwing up. Luckily she was clean about it so she didn't get any on her clothes or in her hair. Once she was done she grabbed a washcloth and wiped her face before rinsing her mouth. Then she tiptoed down the hallway and into the bedroom where Fitz was fast asleep. Mellie quickly tiptoed over to her bag where she had 4 pregnancy tests waiting. She had been a few weeks late and she had begun to feel nauseous so she had picked up a few of these at the pharmacy on the way here. She didn't want Fitz to know yet in case she wasn't pregnant, she didn't want to get his hopes up. She quickly grabbed the tests and headed to the bathroom where she flicked on a light and took all four of the tests. She waited a while before looking. As she looked at the 4 pink plus signs she felt tear of joy running down her face. They were going to be parents. She knew she shouldn't tell him this early but she just had to. She quickly left the bathroom and climbed into the bed shaking Fitz until he woke up.

"Fitz baby wake up"

"Mel's what's going on?" he asked confused

"Fitz I just took the test …. I'm pregnant"

"Seriously? "He asked wondering if this was a dream

"Seriously" Mellie said her smile widening

"Were going to be parents?" he asked still in disbelief

"Were going to be parents" Mellie said as Fitz pulled her into his arms. Soon they began to kiss and within moments they were completely naked in each other's arms. They spent the whole night making love, slowly moving inside of each other loving every inch of each other. Finally Mellie fell asleep in his arms around 3:00 am.

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The next morning Fitz woke up to find a clod empty spot in the bed where she was supposed to be. As she sat up he saw her through the French doors standing on the balcony. She was wearing his boxers and his navy shirt. The grey of the shirt looked amazing against her tan California skin. He quickly got up and pulled on some boxers before heading out to the balcony. The second he opened the door she quickly turned around.

"Hey" she said with a smile before she turned around to once again face the ocean

"Hey … what you thinking about" he asked as she wrapped his arms around her resting his hand on her stomach

"The governor's mansion…" she admitted

"Mellie I…" he said

"I was thinking about the governor's mansion and how I don't want it"

"Really?" he asked in disbelief

"Yeah … all I need is you and this baby, I love you and I don't want you to be unhappy, I don't want to force you into this … I love you too much for that"

"I love you and I don't care what the future brings as long as you're in it"

"Yeah and I mean I don't want you to be in debt to your father and who knows maybe I'll run for office … but until then I have you which is all that matters."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys here's the next chapter, just to note this takes place 4 years after the last chapter and in this story Mellie is a democrat.

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4 years later:

" _As we continue our election night coverage we now turn to one of the most followed races of the year, the race for the senator of California. As election results continue to pour in on the west coast it is already clear that Democratic darling Mellie Grant has already shored up a commanding lead in the polls against embattled senator Harvey Scott"_

As Mellie listened to the BNC reporter talk about her she began to feel nervous. She didn't quite know why, like the reporter said she had good reason to be confident. Every recent poll showed that she held a massive lead. The campaigns personal tracking polls offered as good or better news and after California was nearly all democrats so the chances of her loosing were slim. But as the day progressed, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling the race would be closer than expected and she might end up on the wrong side of a historic upset.

She suddenly snapped out of her trance as she felt him squeeze her hand. She quickly turned towards her husband who was sitting next to her on the sofa.

"You okay sweetie?" He asked as he loosened his grip on her hand

"Yeah I'm just a little nervous I guess" she admitted

"Why? I mean you heard the reporter, your already leading by a double digits"

"Yeah I know I just I mean it's still early and I'm just worried that everything that all I've put into this, all we've put into this will be for nothing"

"Hey listen to me … in a few hours all the money and the time and the phone calls that we put into this will all be worth it when you become the hottest senator California has ever seen"

"Oh really … just California, so your saying there's a hotter senator in another state?" she asked as Fitz's face fell realizing he was screwed

"No I mean you'll be the hottest senator ever" he said quickly trying to back track

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" she asked pretending to be annoyed

"Mellie Grant the love of my life, the woman of my dreams, the mother of my children, the future hottest senator ever I love you … I love you more than I thought was humanly possible." He said pulling her into his arms and kissing her temple

"I love you too" she said quietly turning Fitz and planting a kiss on his lips

"Okay hold on … as cute as it is to see you two all lovey dovey we have results to monitor and I need my candidate's full attention… you can have her later" Her campaign manager Abby teased. Mellie and Abby were best friends who had been roommates at boarding school before going their separate ways at collage, Mellie to Yale and Abby to Stanford. They had stayed friends though and when Mellie was first running for district attorney and now when she was running for senate it only made sense for her to hire Abby who was an up in coming campaign manager to run her campaign. She and Abby had spent so much time together on the campaign trail that Abby was now like a part of the family often crashing in the guest room of their L.A. home.

"Okay you can have her but when she wins she's all mine" Fitz said with a smirk

"Actually when she wins she belongs the people of California" Abby pointed out as she walked away

"I do not like her right now" Fitz teased as Mellie focused her attention back to the five TV's that had been set up. They were running watching / monitoring the results in the penthouse suite of the Grand hotel in downtown L.A. They had gotten here late last night with more people trickling in throughout the day. By now the rooms was at full capacity with interns and staffers sprawled out everywhere typing away on their laptops and making phone calls. And Mellie was right in the thick of it sitting on a sofa next to Fitz watching the election results. This was so much more intense and high stakes then her last election. Three years ago she had been told by an insider source that the District Attorney of L.A. would step down and they needed somebody to run for that spot. Now while this might sound like every lawyers dream job none of them wanted it because they clearly all knew something that she didn't. They knew that when you were district attorney you would have to deal with a police force that had awful race relations with the African American community. This became clear to Mellie about one year into her term when an African American teenager was shot by a police officer. After heinous details about how this unarmed teenager was unlawfully profiled the country grew angry. There were riots and protests in the streets and everyone from the police chief to the mayor stepped down. Everyone in the justice department decided to rest the entire case on the young new district attorney. Coming from a Southern family that had most likely made a little bit of slave owning in their background everybody expected her to side with the officer and get him out of a conviction. Despite the pressure from City hall Mellie refused to do that and instead she used every trick she had earned at Harvard and was able to get a first degree murder conviction.

After that she became a national star, she was on the front pages of newspapers and she was guest on all the morning shows. She even spoke at the Democratic national convention last year. While rumors swirled about what was next for one of the country's most popular politicians there were mentions of Attorney General or perhaps mayor of L.A. While Mellie had considered both these spots she was suddenly presented with the opportunity to do something far greater, run for the United States senate. Current sitting republican senator Harvey Scott was disliked by nearly everyone in California. He was known by all as a senator who didn't care about the people, all he cared about was the title. He would often be seen skipping important votes to go party on lobbyist yachts and he would only vote when they were bills that those lobbyists were interested in. California was failing and everybody wanted him out. Mellie knew this and she seized the opportunity, using her political capital from the trial to win the democratic nomination for senate. Although Harvey knew how disliked he was, the special interest groups he represented donated big to his campaign. He had used all that money to try to dig up dirt on Mellie and her family. Unfortunately for him they were a happy loving young family with no skeletons in their closet. Even so Harvey somehow found out about her miscarriage and leaked to the press that she had actually gotten an abortion be she wanted to focus on her career. This rumor had nearly killed Mellie, sure she was fine with abortion but the fact that he was taking something as painful as her miscarriage and spinning into lies for his campaign had completely broke her heart. She remembered just sitting on the floor of the shower for hours sobbing while Fitz just held her in his arms. After this though Mellie had decided to stop playing victim and instead she had dedicated everything she had to get Harvey out of the senate. She had made thousands of calls, and had raised millions of dollars. She had taken every spare minute coming up with better and more efficient ways to campaign all in an attempt to take Harvey down. Although she played hard she never played dirty because she didn't want to sink to his level. She had filled the airwaves with Photos of her and Fitz and their kids. She had reached out to the family values voters and had even got a good chunk of them to vote democrat. She had visited almost every single county which was crazy considering how big California was. Now here she was with victory in sight but all she could think about was what if Harvey pulled the biggest upset in California history and would destroy everything she worked for.

She tried to push these thoughts out of her head as she turned her attention back the screen. She didn't think she'd ever been this nervous before in her life. Turns out she was wrong because a second later Abby took a phone call which clearly seemed important. As Mellie stared at her she tried to analyze her best friends face but got mixed results. Had Harvey somehow pulled ahead? Were the polls closer than expected? Mellie was about to speak when Abby held her finger to her lips silently telling her to be quiet. After a minute Abby hung up the phone and turned to Mellie.

"That was Harold from the L.A Times …. They're about to call the race for you" she said as Mellie felt her stomach drop not sure if Abby was telling the truth

"You're kidding" Mellie said in disbelief

"No I'm not …. Look" Abby said as she pointed to the TV screen where all the channels had the breaking news alert with Mellie photo and the words under it. **Projected Winner**. As Mellie saw this she and Abby both at the exact same time began jumping up and down and squealing just like they did when they got their collage acceptance letters. She suddenly felt Fitz throw his arms around her and pull her in close and whispered in her ear "I love you". After that it was all a blur, she shook a lot of hands, got a lot of congratulations and was then shuttled off towards a private room to field phone calls from her biggest donor. As she was being shuttled over to the room she suddenly felt a tug on her skirt. As she looked down she saw her little four year old son Jerry in his little baby blue blazer and his Khaki's "Mommy did you win?" he asked softly

"Yeah I won baby"

"Nobody told me" he said as he looked like he was about to cry.

"Oh I'm sorry buddy but now you know … and now how about Laurie takes you to go play with sissy"

"Karen's asleep Mommy"

"Oh okay well how about Laurie takes you to go play daddy and mommy will join you little bit okay"

"Okay mommy" he said as he ran away towards where Fitz was sitting

"Holly shit you have the cutest kids in the world" Abby muttered under her breath

"I do don't I" Mellie teased as she headed to one of the private rooms. Once she was in there she took phone calls from her biggest donors along with the Governor of California and James earl an independent who she was also running against. Then she finally got the call she had been waiting for … the concession call Harvey Scott. Their conversation was short because neither of them liked each other. She had thought she would feel a little bit bad for him but he had attacked her family, he had spread malicious rumors about her and so she didn't feel bad at all, in fact she felt great knowing he could never do anything to harm her state ever again. Abby walked into the room as she was finishing the conversation with Harvey. A second later she hung up and set down the phone.

"Thank god I never have to deal with that asshole again" Mellie muttered

"Yeah well he's about to give his concession speech and we arranged it so you will give your speech once his is over so as to not steal your spotlight Miss Senator elect" Abby said with a smirk

"Wow that's the first time I've heard it … it doesn't feel real"

"Yeah well maybe it will after you give your speech which reminds me you Fitz and the kids need to get downstairs soon" Abby said as she left the room once again. Mellie quickly followed her and headed over to the sofa where Fitz was sitting next to Jerry who was playing angry birds on his phone.

"Hey babe so are we going down soon?"

"Yeah Abby said like 5 minutes"

"Okay cool I guess better go wake Karen up" he said as he headed into the bedroom where their 2 year old was sleeping. Mellie quickly pulled Jerry into her arms balancing him on her hip while she bounced him up and down slowly. Suddenly she heard a thud as the little boy dropped Fitz's phone on the floor.

"Uh oh" Jerry said quickly as he leaned down to try to pick it up causing him to almost fall out of Mellie's arms. She held him tighter as he quickly crouched down and picked up the phone relived to find that the life proof case had saved it. As she picked up the phone she slipped it into her pocket much to Jerrys dismay

"You can have it later buddy we just doesn't want you to break it cause then you'll have nothing to do" Mellie pointed out as the little boy nodded his head in agreement. As second later Mellie Saw Fitz exit the bedroom carrying their chubby 2 year old daughter Karen. The little girl had her tiny hands in mini fists as she rubbed her eyes. Mellie felt awful about walking the little girl up when she was sleeping so peacefully but she wanted the whole family there for her speech.

"Her dress is pretty wrinkled" Mellie said as she rubbed the fabric.

"I brought another one … should I change her?" he asked as Mellie smirked thinking about how domesticated Fitz had become.

"Nah it's no big deal …. I don't want to put you guys through all the trouble just for that besides she still looks adorable"

"Of course she does … she looks just like her mommy" Fitz said as he tickled his little girl

"Eh … she has your eyes, they both have your eyes" Mellie pointed out

"Hey sorry for interrupting family time again but you guys are due on stage in less than 5 minutes" Abby informed

"Oh right sorry lets go guys" Mellie said as she headed to the elevator. Once they got downstairs they were ushered by some staffers to the stage where Jeff Carl one of California's most famous congressman and a close family friend was finishing his introduction.

"And now Lady's a gentleman please welcome to the stage your new junior senator from the great state of California Mellie Grant" he said as the crowd went wild. Mellie quickly walked on stage waving to the crowd and shaking hands with Jeff as she got to the podium and began her speech.

"…. I want to thank my staff and everyone who worked on my campaign day in and day out. I want to thank everyone who donated their time and money to my campaign I want to say a special thanks to my amazing family, my husband who is my rock who kept me grounded throughout the campaign, my wonderful children who always reminded me why I was doing this, I'm doing this for their future and for the future of the kids all around California. And last of all I want to thank everyone who voted for me, because that vote is a vote for the future" she said as the crowd went wild with cheers and applause.

Suddenly the confetti canons went off and Mellie found herself surrounded by confetti, so much she couldn't see the crowd. Karen and Jerry were mesmerized by the sight as they reached out and tried to catch it , by the time it was down they all had confetti on their clothes and in their hair but they didn't care. Soon they were hurried off stage before shaking and taking selfies. Soon Mellie headed back upstairs, she thanked all the staff and had a quick party before she and Fitz decided to go home to let the kids get some sleep. Soon they got back to their L.A. Home and climbed out of the car carrying their two children who had passed out on the drive home. Mellie carried Karen into her bedroom pulling off the little girls dress and putting on her PJ's. After that she tucked her in the bed and then headed to Jerry's rooms where she found him already in bed. Mellie gave him a kiss as well before heading back to her bedroom where Fitz was sitting on the bed in just his boxers. He quickly stood up and kissed her

"You know I don't think I ever truly congratulated you , Madame Junior Senator" he said in a seductive whisper

"Oh well we have a few hours till the kids come bounding into our room all hyper again"

"Yeah … hey I was just thinking are we going to Move to Washington?"

"Yeah I think we're going to move have to move to Washington"


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys so here's the next chapter. Now what I'm trying with this story is to write chapters that all fit with the plotline but take place months or years apart. I'm doing this because this story will take place over the course of about 20 years so I really hope you guys enjoy this story and just to answer the question in this story Fitz is a stayed at home dad. Now I know some people said it was hard to see her as a democrat but I made her a democrat for a specific reason that you will see later. I really believe that in this story and on the show that would be a good job for him. So here's the next chapter hope you enjoy.

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1 month later:

The sunlight streamed through the crack in the curtains as Mellie's eyes fluttered open. She couldn't believe this day. As excited as she was she also felt a hint of sadness. This house had so many memories, the kids had grown up here, and they had said their first words and taken their first steps here. This had been home for the past 5 years and she was sad to let it go. She silently swung her legs over the side of the bed before slowly peeling away the covers trying to be as quiet as possible as to not wake up Fitz. As she stood up she tiptoed into the bathroom. As she stepped into the massive bathroom she felt the hard cold marble against her bare feet. There was no bath mat on the floor there were no towels, all this stuff had been packed into the moving truck last night so they were stuck in a house with just the bare minimum of stuff. They had put this home on the market shortly after she won her senate race. While the majority of senators commuted every weekend from D.C. back to their home districts Mellie was adamant that she wanted her family to move with her to D.C. She wanted her family close not thousands of miles away. She wanted to be able to come home every night and give her kid's their baths and tuck them in and things like that. She didn't want to miss a second of their 2 in California so she still seemed connected to her state. Since she could live anywhere in the state they decided it was best to sell this home In L.A. and just stay in their Santa Barbra ranch that they had inherited from Fitz's father when he died last year. The ranch was a gorgeous palatial home on 4 waterfront acres, with its pool, beach and hiking trails it would be a great place for the kid's to spend weekends and summers. Even with her family living in Washington she knew it would still be hard to find the balance between a job that would demand her attention 24/7 and a family that would deserve her attention 24/7. She knew that things would always be so busy and she worried that she would mess up and be an awful parent just like her parents. She quickly pushed these thoughts out of her head as she turned on the sink and splashed water over her face before realizing they didn't have any towels left. As she pushed back a few wet strands of hair she felt the cold water drip onto Fitz's Navy tee-shirt. If there was something Mellie loved more than anything it was sleeping in Fitz's Navy tee shirt and boxers. It was something she had done since law school, even now when she had multiple pairs of designer pajamas she always opted for the tee shirt and boxers. As she felt the cold water droplets drip down her flat stomach she quickly grabbed a hair tie and tied her hair up into a messy bun before exiting the bathroom.

She quickly tiptoed into the bedroom careful not to wake Fitz up. As she climbed over a suitcase blocking the door she exited the room and headed out of the room. She first passed by Karen's room. She let out a quick sigh as she saw the bare room defined only by its light pink walls that Karen loved oh so much. Mellie smiled at the thought of how the little girl would react to her new room in D.C. She slowly closed the door but only after she searched under the bed to make sure that no stuffed animals were left behind. Once she made sure the room was clear she headed down the hallway and did the same thing to Jerrys room. After that she slowly opened the door of the guest room to see Jerry and Karen curled up next to each other on the bed. Mellie had decided it was easier for the kids to sleep in the guest room because that way Mellie had had free reign over the kid's room to pack late into the night. As Mellie closed the door she headed down the staircase towards the kitchen. When Mellie had first moved to the west coast she had been surprised at the lack of two story homes in the L.A. area. Growing up in palatial Sothern estates Mellie was used to the bedrooms being on the second floor while the main floor was where the living area was. This was why she was shocked to find how many one story ranch homes there were in L.A. Luckily they had been able to find this two story fixer upper that they had taken down to the studs. They had customized every inch of this place. They had put so much time and energy into this place and now they were selling it. She wondered if she would ever see this house again, if she would ever walk these halls. She knew that she probably wouldn't and that hurt but deep down she knew that letting go of this house was just her moving on with her life. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Fitz walk up behind her. She was so stuck in her trance that when he spoke she got so scared she let out a shriek.

"Holy shit you scared me" she said as she tried to catch her breath

"Sorry baby I didn't mean too ... are you okay? You seem a little tense"

"Yes I'm tense, Fitz in 5 hours we need to be packed up and moved out of this house"

"So ... we already packed the suitcases and we bathed the kids before we put the stuff in the moving van so that's all taken care of and Martha cleaned the house so we don't have to worry about it being dirty so ... were all set"

"I know but I'm still just ... I don't know I'm just feeling on edge for some reason"

"Baby what's wrong ... I mean were moving to D.C. because you're a United States senator, Mel's your dreams are coming true ... I don't get what could possibly be wrong."

"Nothing it's just ... I'm scared" she admitted as tears started to roll down her face

"Oh baby ... scared of what?" he asked her he guided her over to the sofa before pulling her into his arms and letting her cry into his shoulder.

"I don't know it's just ... everything is changing and I mean were selling this house and were moving to D.C. and it's just ... maybe there's a reason there are no young mothers in the senate because it is such a hard job and it takes so much time and I'm afraid of not being enough ... I'm afraid of being an awful parent just like our parents and ... I'm scared" She said as the tears continued to flow down her face.

"Mel's look at me" she said his hand cupping her face as she looked into his bright blue eyes. "Mellie you are about to become a United States senator, you are about to take on the world and sure things are changing but their changing for the better. And it might not be easy and sometimes we might be so busy that we just want to quit but the truth is everything will work out because we love each other and we love or children and I swear to god we will _never_ be like our parents ... I will never leave you like your father and you will never put your work before your kid's like my father." Fitz said as he hugged her slowly rubbing her back

"You know I'm starting to think it was a good thing that we had such shitty parents" Mellie whispered

"Really?" Fitz asked sarcastically

"Yeah because I think it showed us everything not to do"

"Yeah namely to not bang your secretary" Fitz said as Mellie playfully hit her shoulder

"Hey what do you say we leave this house with a bang" Mellie whispered as her hand crept down his chest and straight into his boxers.

XXXX

10 minutes later Mellie found herself pulling on his boxers. After a second she realized they weren't the ones she had worn downstairs but it didn't matter. As she pulled on his navy tee-shirt she stood up as her muscles began to scream. She prayed to god that she had a bottle of Advil left behind. As Fitz stood up he came up behind her as he wrapped his strong arms around her.

"You remember when we bought this house we said we wanted to fuck each other in everywhere well I think that was mission accomplished because we have done it everywhere"

"We have haven't we ... oh god we were so young back then"

"Not really I mean it was only 4 years ago"

"I don't mean young that way I just ... I mean we were just two kids expecting a baby and now we have two kids , I mean I'm a senator I ... its's , I mean I'm a senator I ... it's just crazy how things change"

"Yeah but it's changing for the beter. You're going to fix Washington and you're going to be amazing and I am so so proud of you Mellie ... you know that right."

"I know" she said as she leaned up and captured his lips in hers "We better go upstairs and get changed" Mellie said as she broke away from the kiss and headed upstairs. She walked past the kid's room and back into the master where she pulled out the clothing that she had set out last night. After she pulled on the blue jeans a long sleeve white shirt and a navy blue scarf with little anchors. Once she did tied the scarf she tucked the boxers and tee shirt into her bag and brushed her hair before she made the bed. All the things they had with them would go through in their suitcases. They were flying to D.C. with just some stuff while the other moving trucks were driving to L.A and would arrive on Monday. As Mellie tucked the hairbrush into the suitcase she handed Fitz the clothes that she had left out for him. Once he had changed into his jeans and button down they headed to the guest room to wake up there little angels. As they slowly opened the door and walked over the bed and found jerry lying under the covers with his eyes open trying to pretend he was asleep.

"Oh no looks like Jerry is still asleep ... Maybe we shouldn't have let him stay up so late last night" Mellie said as she winked at Fitz.

"Yeah I guess we better put him to bed extra early tonight" Fitz said as the little boy sprang up out of the bed not wanting to have to go to sleep any earlier then he already did.

"I'm awake daddy" he said as he jumped up and down instantly walking up his sister who began to fuss.

"Oh no sweetie don't cry" Mellie said as she sat on the bed carefully picked up the little girl and began to rub her back trying to sooth her.

"Hey Jerry can you say sorry for waking up your sister" Fitz said

"Sorry Karen" Jerry said as he climbed back up on the bed and planted a kiss on his little sisters head.

"It okway fairy" Karen mumbled as she smiled at her brother. Mellie could never get over how Karen mispronounced her brother's name ... it was so cute. As Mellie picked the little girl up of the bed and placed her on the floor she immediately waddled over to Fitz who picked her up.

"Hey why don't we get them changed so we can finish packing" Mellie suggested as Fitz nodded his head in agreement. As he went over to the table where Mellie had left out outfits for the kids. He pulled on Karen's black leggings and yellow top along with her pink Velcro flats. Mellie pulled on Jerrys blue jeans and his star wars tee-shirt. Since it was a travel day Mellie knew it was better for the kids to be comfortable as opposed to fashionable. Once the kids were changed Fitz brushed a very fidgety Karen's hair before taking the kids downstairs to watch TV while Mellie finished packing. She packed away their PJ's from last night along with their cosmetics and stuffed animals. She decided what would go in checked luggage and what would stay in their carry on's. She remembered back when she and Fitz were in law school and they went to Europe and every day they would just get on a train and go to a new countries. She remembered how little stuff they had brought with them. Now she was stuffing two carry on's full of snacks and toys and books and back up clothing and back up stuffed animals. It was funny how much her life changed after having kids. It had changed in a good way thought... her kids had made her happier than she ever thought possible. They had filled the whole in her heart from her own screwed up childhood, they had given her the one thing she had never thought she would have had ... a real family. With this thought in mind Mellie did a quick scan around the empty room before letting out a sigh and heading downstairs to the family room where she found Fitz watching sponge bob.

"Hey... you okay?" Fitz asked

"Yeah I'm ... I'm okay... why don't you go upstairs and make sure I'm not forgetting anything." Mellie said as she sat down on the sofa next to her kids who were fully engrossed in the TV. After a few minutes Fitz came downstairs with the suitcases.

"Mel's you ready to go?" Fitz asked as Mellie turned off the TV causing the smile on Jerry's face to turn into a scowl

"Yeah ... Hey guys can you say goodbye to the house?" Mellie asked

"Why are we saying good bye?" Jerry asked as he jumped off the edge of the sofa.

"Well were moving ... To Washington for mommy's new job ... you remember mommy and daddy telling you about that" Mellie said as she and Karen walked over to Fitz

"But I thought daddy said we would come home sometimes" Jerry said

"We are ...but when we come home were going to stay at the other house"

"Grandpa's house?" Jerry asked as his face lit up

"Yeah ...Grandpa's house" Mellie said

"Can we go swimming at grandpa's house?" Jerry asked referring to the fat that the house was on 3 miles of private beach.

"Of course we can Buddy" Mellie said as she ruffled the little's boys hair. She then proceeded to take one last walk around the house. He felt the mix of fear and excitement as she stared at the bathroom where she had taken her pregnancy test with Karen and the hallway where Jerry had taken his first steps. They had made so many amazing memories in this house but now they were going to make new memories in D.C. as she returned to the foyer she found Fitz loading the suitcases into the range rover along with strapping the kid's into their car seats. After that he headed back into the house and wrapped his arms around Mellie.

"I can't believe were really leaving" Mellie muttered as Fitz held her close.

"I know but were leaving for a good reason... besides remember how much you used to hate California" he pointed out

"It's grow on me but I can't say I'm not happy to move back to the south"

"Well D.C.'s not really the south" he teased as she playfully hit his arm.

"Screw you" she teased as she headed to the door before turning to back one more time

"Good bye house hello future" Mellie said as she headed to the car. Once she got to the car she climbed into the passenger seat and they drove away from the house into the town where they stopped at a breakfast place to get food. As they got inside a few people recognized Mellie and began to talk to her. This made her feel amazing as she thought of all these people that she could help once she got to Washington. After having feeding the kids and sneaking in a few bites of their own. After that they loaded back into the car and headed towards the airport. As they were driving down the road Fitz suddenly pulled to the side of the road where there was the entrance to a gorgeous beach. As Fitz parked her got out of the car and Mellie followed suit making sure to roll down the window as to not suffocate the kids. As she stood at the edge of the sand she felt the cold wind blow causing her to shiver. Fitz quickly pulled of his jacket and wrapped it around her.

"You know I just realized that you've been so focused on how I'm feeling I never asked you how you're feeling. I mean California was always your home"

"Yeah I know but I love you and the kids and you guys are my home ... wherever you are I'll be ... I love you guys so much and this is going to be an amazing experience." He said with a smile as he leaned in and kissed her. After a second of standing there they headed back to the car and continued towards the airport. Once they got there they checked their luggage and got their boarding pass. After that they headed through security. While everything went smoothly it was required that Karen walk through the metal detector on her own. Since the little girl had just learned to walk Mellie had to kneel in front of the metal detector and cox the little girl across the threshold. After that Jerry put the wrong shoe on each foot and ended up falling down. After about 20 straight minutes of crying and a band aid on a bruise they finally made it to the gate with 1 hour to spare. While Fitz entertained the kids with his iPad Mellie grabbed some sandwiches along with gum, candy and magazines at one of the airport news's stores. When she returned to the boarding gate she found Karen playing with her Barbie's on the floor. Soon they had to board so Mellie had to quickly stuff away multiple Barbie shoes. Once this was done they boarded the plane and got settled in first class. While it was okay this time Mellie knew she would have to start flying coach. She couldn't seem to rich and elitist even thought her bank account was worth more than what 20 people make in one lifetime. As she sat down she entered her credit card info into the screen so the kids could watch movies. They were seated her at the window. Jerry next to her and Karen next to Fitz who was on the isle. Soon he flight attendant came on the loudspeaker with the safety instructions Mellie let out a small chuckle when the flight attendant said that a parent should put on their own oxygen mask before helping their children. She couldn't imagine a single parent ever putting themselves before their children. Soon they taxied away from the gate and Mellie felt the mix if fear and excitement again. Soon she felt them speed down the runway as the wheels left the tarmac. As they circled around the airport Mellie pushed up the window covering to see all the little cities disappearing beneath the clouds. She couldn't believe this had been happening, she couldn't believe she was going to be a United States senator. As the flight went on the kids played with their toys , read some books and watched a fair amount of movies before Jerry laid his head on his moms lap and went out like a light while Karen continued to watch Manny's tool box.

XXXX

5 hours later:

Finally they landed and disembarked the plane tying to hurry off before someone noticed the silly putty Karen had stuffed between the seats. After they disembarked then they picked up the stroller and stopped at the bathroom before heading to the baggage claim in which Jerry tried to pull the bags off the carousal and nearly crushed himself in the process. Fitz quickly ran over and held the little boy while Mellie gave jerry her phone so that he could play subway surfer and forget all about the bags. After that they left the airport and headed to the place where the car service was waiting for them. They loaded into the car after a struggle to fold the stroller they finally all pilled in. The kids where so whipped out from traveling that they both passed out in the car. As the driver drove down the streets Mellie recognized some of the streets that they had drove down with their realtor. When they finally arrived at their street the driver pulled them into the driveway and helped with the backs before diving away. As they stood in front of the huge oak door surrounded by suitcases with the kid's in their arms Mellie whispered

"Where home"


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys so here's the next chapter, sorry it been so long, I've just been so busy I haven't had time to update. Anyway I don't know if people like this story so if you do like it please please please review. Thanks everybody, hope you enjoy.

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She slowly taped the gas petal as she pulled her white range rover into a parking spot. As she clicked the button to turn off the car she glanced at her watch. It was almost 9:00 am, she had to hurry to make her appointment on time. The last thing she needed was to be late and miss her appointment and have to wait, she definitely did not have time for that. She quickly unstrapped her seat belt as she pushed open the door grabbing her bag before getting out of the car, locking it as she left. She quickly walked over the parking meter and fished in her Prada bag for some quarters. She debated putting in three of four quarters but she finally decided on four , not because she wanted to stay two hour but because she felt it was better to be safe than sorry. After that she hurried down the sidewalk towards the blow dry bar. As she turned onto Main Street she spotted the black and white stripped awning of the hip salon. She quickly walked towards it and entered the store where a young girl stood behind the desk. She was tall with dirty blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. She looked like she couldn't have been more than 22 but then again last week someone had carded her at a bar so who could be sure. She quickly walked up to the desk

"Hi um I have a nine a clock appointment under Grant" Mellie said with a smile

"Okay just one second just let me check ... oh here it is , um can you have a seat and Delia will be here to help you In a few minutes." The girl said as she motioned to one of the stark white couches in the waiting room. Mellie quickly sat on the sofa and began to nervously tap her foot on the floor as she stared at the clock on the wall. Her eyes were fixed on the second had as it moved around and around the clock. With every second ticking by Mellie began to feel more and more nervous. What if this took too long? What if the kids weren't ready? What if there was traffic on the way back? These and millions of other scenarios played in her head as she began to get more and more afraid that something would go wrong and she would miss one of the most important days of her life. She was suddenly snapped out of her trance by someone calling her name. She quickly looked up and saw the receptionist standing there.

"Mrs. Grant ... were ready for you at hair washing" she informed as Mellie got up and headed to the back where she sat in a red chair. A minute later an older Hispanic lady walked over and instructed Mellie to lay back resting her neck on the edge of the hard tub. As she moved her neck around trying to get more comfortable she suddenly felt the amazing feeling of the warm water on her scalp. Suddenly she felt the lady's hands massaging the shampoo deep into the scalp. As she felt the immense feeling of pleasure reverberate down her spine as she and the lady made small talk. After a few minutes of her just laying back and enjoying the water the lady turned off the tap and wrapped Mellie's hair in a fluffy white towel before guiding her towards one of the hairdresser's chairs. As Mellie sat in the chair she felt a drop of water drip down her forehead. She quickly reached up and brushed it away as she stared at herself in the huge mirror. She stared at herself and she began to worry. What if she tripped in her heels or what if she stumbled or what if she forgot what to say, or even worse, what if this was her only senate swearing in ever. What if she was such a failure that she ended up sinking her political career. She quickly pushed these thoughts out of her head as the young hairdresser walked up behind her. The girl was tall with dark chocolate skin and her hair in corn rows braids swept to the side in a ponytail.

"So what are we doing today? Waves , maybe a sprit part" The girl suggested as she pulled the towel away letting Mellie's wet brown hair fall down her back.

"Oh no not today, all I need is a simple straight blow dry"

"Seriously? I'm just saying honey you would look amazing with waves"

"Oh thank you but I can't at least not today, I'm starting a new job so I need to be simple and professional."

"Oh well that suck ... so where are you working?" the girl asked as she began to blow dry Mellie's hair

"Oh um I'm working at the capital actually um I'm a senator"

"Seriously that's so cool" the lady said as she continued to blow hot air on Mellie's hair.

"It is yeah ... I mean I guess actually not one yet um I'm being sworn in this afternoon that's why I'm getting my hair done" Mellie explained

"That makes sense ... So um where are you from?" the girl asked

"Um I'm from ...California"

"Oh cool ... I used to live out there, in L.A. I think I'm going to go back soon... I always liked it more than D.C."

"Well if you go back I guess you'll be one of the millions of people I have to represent "Mellie said as she felt her nerves building up again.

"Yeah well good luck I hope it goes well" The girl said as she set down the blow-dryer and walked away. Mellie stared at her shiny straight hair as it framed her face. She quickly glanced down at her watch and smiled when she realized that it was only 9:30. She quickly stood up and grabbed her bag before heading to the des and pulling out her credit card. She quickly paid and tipped both the woman who washed her hair and the girl who blew it dry. After that Mellie left the store and walked down the street towards the parking lot. It had taken her a while to find her way around D.C. but she was getting better almost every day. As she climbed into her car Mellie thought about all the times she had gotten lost when they had first moved here. Even with the GPS in her car and on her phone she had still lost her way a few times. She remembered one time only a few days after they moved here Mellie had told Siri to get directions to home and Siri had gotten directions back to their house in California. This had literally broke Mellie's heart because she missed California so much. Luckily with time D.C began to grow on her and now she was beginning to consider it home.

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After getting back to her car she pulled out of the parking lot and towards her house. As she pulled onto their street she drove down and turned into the driveway clicking the garage button opening one of the large white doors. She quickly pulled in and turned off the car before heading to the door into the house from the garage. As she pushed open the door she found herself in the mudroom. She slowly pulled off her boots and left pushed them to the side as she headed into the kitchen and yelled

"Honey, I'm home" she yelled as she suddenly heard the sound of two shrieking children and little feet on the floor. She suddenly saw the two kids rounding the corner running after each other screaming. Karen was wearing her little pink dress and her pink tights which were causing her to slide on the floor. Jerry was not far behind chasing his sister while his collared shirt was inside out. She suddenly head another thud as Fitz came bounding into the room wearing nothing more than his boxers and his unbuttoned white shirt.

"Get them" Fitz yelled as the little kids continued to run out of the kitchen and into the family room. Mellie quickly lunged and grabbed Karen pulling the chubby little girl into her arms as she continued to shriek, a second later Fitz was able to grab Jerry who was squirming to try to get away. Fitz quickly too this as an opportunity playfully tickling the little boy to the point of Jerry rolling on the floor shaking with laughter. "Daddy stop it ... mama help me" the little boy pleaded between giggles as Fitz finally stopped tickling him.

"What happened here?" Mellie asked with a giggle as she motioned to the half clothed family.

"Well I was getting Karen's tights on and next thing I know it was chaos. I can't really explain it" Fitz admitted

"Yeah well their like that ... the other day I was with them in the super market and Jerry had a complete meltdown and then Karen started screaming at the top of her lungs "

"That's our kids for you, freaking out for no good reason"

"Yeah well I love them anyway" Mellie said as she picked Karen up and planted a kiss on the little girl's forehead before they headed upstairs towards the master bedroom. When they got inside the bedroom Mellie turned on sponge bob which immediately distracted the kids. While Fitz pulled on some pants Mellie grabbed her form fitting back dress from the closet she stared into the bathroom to change next to Fitz but she kept the door slightly ajar so they could see the kids sitting on the light blue bed. Mellie quickly steeped into the dress pulling it up because she wanted to preserve her hair. After that she grabbed the matching back blazer and her sheer tights. After that she pulled on her black heels and began to do her makeup. Fitz on the other hand finished getting dressed early and then got Karen's shoes on along with Jerry's blazer and tie. After that he ran around the house grabbing things to keep the kids distracted, it was Mellie's special day and he didn't want it ruined by two cranky kids. When he got back to the bathroom he found Mellie struggling to fasten her necklace, Fitz quickly walked up behind her and grabbed the little silver clasp as he struggled to get it in the tiny hole. After that he wrapped his arms around her, his hands resting on her chest.

"You ready to become a United States senator"

"I guess"

"Wow that was convincing" he teased

"I know I'm sorry I just ... I want today to go perfectly"

"I get it but just remember this is your day so you should enjoy it" he said as he kissed the nape of her neck before leaving the bathroom to get the kids ready. As he gathered the kids in the foyer of the house he worried about not bringing a stroller. Things were always easier with a stroller but then again he didn't think those were allowed on the senate floor. He was about to put Karen in her white pea coat but instead he opted for her black north face because he wanted his little girl to be comfortable even if she wasn't stylish. After getting her ready he instructed Jerry to put his coat on as well. Once they were done the family of four headed out of their house and down the street to the nearest Metro station. As they walked down the staircase into the underground station Mellie informed the kids to hold heads with mommy and daddy and to not get on the train until everyone was on. 5 minutes later the metro appeared and the family boarded. The train was quite crowded which meant that they were only able to get one seat. Mellie quickly sat down before pulling Jerry onto her lap. A second later Karen climbed onto Jerrys lap. As Mellie held the kids she stared up at the map. It was a 20 minute Metro ride to the capital. She had still not decided if she would drive or take the Metro to work. As they rode along people came and went and Fitz finally got seat next to her. Soon they pulled into the stop near the capital. They got off and climbed the stairs before they emerged at the surface. They then crossed the street towards the massive United States capital. Mellie saw a sign for staff entrance. They walked over and were checked in by a security guard. After that they found Abby who was waiting for them.

"Oh finally I've been waiting for like 20 minutes" Abby complained as she rolled her eyes.

"Sorry Ab's it takes some time to get two small children ready" Mellie explained as she leaned down to straighten Jerrys tie.

"Yeah well speaking of cute children, the next time out will be sworn in will be in 6 years when you kids will be old and much less cute so today you need to get the press to take a million adorable photos of you and your cute kids and your hot husband." Abby explained

"I'm not exploiting my family Abby" Mellie said sternly

"Yeah well I don't think it's your choice" Abby said with a smirk as she pointed to a photographer who was taking photos of Mellie fixing Jerry's tie . All Mellie could do was laugh as Abby led them from the waiting area into the halls of the senate. Mellie couldn't believe she was here. She was seriously walking the restricted halls of the senate about to be sworn in as a United States senator. As they walked that same photographer kept taking more and more pictures of Mellie and the kids as she held their hands leading them down the old marble hallways towards the old chamber. When they finally arrived at the old chamber Mellie felt her heart skip in anticipation. Abby led them to the back of the chamber where the other senators and their families were all sitting.

For the next two hours they would sit in those seats watching other people being sworn in while the kids grew more and more impatient. Luckily for them Fitz had though ahead and had packed the baby bag full of toys, books and snacks. Fitz had brought so much so much stuff that some of the senators with young kids or grandkids asked to borrow stuff. Of course Mellie agreed because she was ungodly eager to become friends with her fellow senators. As Mellie continued to sit there she examined the other senators being sworn in. Most of the people being sworn in were people who had served before and had been reelected but there were a few like herself who were newly elected. Even though there were some newbies they were few and far apart, and Mellie was even stranger because she was so young, at barely 36 she was the youngest senator serving. As she continued to stare she was suddenly snapped put of her trance by somebody's voice behind her.

"Don't be nervous" the voice said as Mellie whipped her head around to see a lady sitting behind her in a red suit.

"Oh did I scare you , I'm sorry it's just you looked scared and I remember I was scared when I was first sworn in but then again it was a special election and it was different and now I'm babbling , I do that a lot um ... I'm Susan Ross"

"Oh of course Susan Ross, you're one of the senators from west Virginia right?"

"Yes... well I'm not from West Virginia I'm from normal Virginia, not that the people in West Virginia aren't nice ... It's a lovely state" Susan babbled

"Right yeah ... sorry, I knew it was one of the Virginia's." Mellie said with a smile

"Yes well anyway you looked nervous and I was nervous when I was sworn in but its actually not that scary at all, the vice president is so nice and you only need to say one word and then boom you're done."

"Okay I guess maybe I'm psyching myself out more than I should be ... I don't think it will be so bad" Mellie said with a weak smile as she was suddenly informed by one of the staff that she needed to get to the front because she was next. She quickly scrambled as she tried to get the kid's ready which was especially hard after Karen kicked off her shoes and Jerrys started to get cranky. Fitz quickly put a stop to this though by reminding the kids how it was a special day from mommy and that if they behaved we could buy them whatever toys they wanted tomorrow. The second Fitz said that the kids suddenly began much more obedient. They quickly picked them up, Mellie holding Karen on her hip and Fitz leading Jerry by the hand towards where people were being sworn in at the front of the congress. Once they got there they were told to wait a moment while the senator from Iowa finished her swearing in. Once she was done Mellie walked over towards the vice president. He was an older man who had formerly been the governor of Pennsylvania before being elected vice president.

"Hello Mr. Vice president it's such an honor to meet you." Mellie said with a smile

"Nice to meet you ... and who is this" he asked as he turned his attention to Karen.

"Oh um this is Karen my two year old" Mellie said as the vice president smiled at the little girl

"Karen how are you?" He asked as the little girl replied with one little "Good". After that Fitz walked up leading Jerry with him.

"Mr. Vice president nice to meet you" Fitz said as he shook the vice presidents hand.

"Nice to meet you, hey handsome, how old are you fourteen? "He asked as he leaned down towards Jerrys eye level

"No I'm four" Jerrys said holding up four fingers

"Oh well I knew there was a four in their somewhere... So daddy why don't you stand here and you can hold him and she can hold her" The vice president suggested as Fitz pulled Jerry onto his hip. With his free hand he held the bible that Mellie was not able to rest her fingers on due to the child in her arms but the vice president assured her it would be okay.

"Okay let's get this started ... raise your right hand" The Vice president instructed as Mellie raised her hand in the air. Only seconds after raising her hand, little Karen who was resting on her mother's hip raised her hand as well trying to mimic her mother. The second the vice president saw this he suddenly began to chuckle as he continued on with the oath

"Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter. So help you God."

"I do"

"Congratulations your officially a united states senator"


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I can't tell if people are liking this story

3 months later:

Beep! Beep! Beep! Mellie's groaned as she rolled over reaching out to grab her iPhone and turn off that annoying alarm that literally sounded like the siren you would hear second before someone dropped the atom bomb. As she grabbed her phone off the side table she clicked the home button which caused the bright screen to flash in her eyes temporarily blinding her. She fidgeted with the screen trying to turn down the brightness as she held the one hand in front of her eyes. Finally her eyes adjusted and she unlocked the phone turning off the annoying alarm. As Mellie pushed off the fluffy white comforter of her body she swung her legs off the side of the bed. She sluggishly stood up and quickly pulled the covers back as she tried to quickly make the bed. Fitz had already made his side of the bed when he got up. He would always get up about half an hour before Mellie so that he could go for his beloved morning jog. Ever since law school Fitz had always loved to get up early and go out for a jog, it was his way of staying in shape. Mellie had never been a big fan of running, choosing instead to swim laps in the senate gym after work. When she had first become a senator she had been far too shy to go swimming because she felt embarrassed to be seen in a swimsuit by her colleagues. Luckily for her lots of senators swam and she started to feel more comfortable about doing it herself. Even so she was still the youngest and most attractive member of the senate so many of the older senators would making sexist comments about her. She had been shocked that people in this day and age people could think it was okay for someone to make comment about her body but she just tried to brush it off trying not to make fuss. As she got up off the bed she felt walked into the massive ensuite bath. When she got into the bathroom she immediately felt the freezing cold marble against her bare feet. She quickly tiptoed over to the wall where she flipped the switch to turn on the heated floors. This was something Mellie did every morning, she would first thing head into the bathroom and turn on the heated floor so that they wouldn't freeze her feet. After that she left the bathroom and headed through the massive master towards the door. When she got into the hallway she walked past the kids rooms towards the staircase. She walked downstairs into the kitchen. From there she walked over to the large white pantry and opened the door pulling out one of the drawers to reveal the Keurig K cups. She selected the morning blend and put it in the machine before grabbing a coffee cup and placing it under the nozzle. She then clicked the button and watched the steady stream of coffee leave the machine and drip into the cup. She walked across the kitchen to the massive stainless steel fridge which she opened and pulled out the soy milk from the top shelf. She closed the fridge and walked back over to her cup of coffee which was finally full. She quickly poured in her soy milk before returning it to the fridge. After that she headed back upstairs to her bedroom. She stopped for a second in the doorframe of Jerrys room as she watched her little boy sleep. It warmed Mellie's heart to see her boy sleeping so peacefully, when he was little he had had so many respiratory problems that sleeping through the night was out of the question. It had gotten so bad at one point that he had to be put on a defibulator. Luckily he seemed to have outgrown his problems and now he was a healthy little boy. After watching him sleep for a few minutes she headed to her bedroom where she set the half-finished coffee on a coaster before heading back into the bathroom. As she stepped back into the bathroom she smiled at warm feeling beneath her feet. She walked over to the massive marble shower and striped out of her clothing tossing them in a ball on the floor before stepping inside the massive shower. She quickly walked to the other side of the shower and turned on the hot water. After a minute of standing in the shower shivering she finally deemed that the water was hot enough for her to go under it. She stood under the water as it caressed her body. She slowly closed her eyes as she enjoyed the warm snugly feeling she got from the hot water against her skin. She was suddenly snapped out of her trance by the sound of the glass door opening. Mellie's eyes shot open as she saw a completely nude Fitz enter the shower.

"Mind if I join you Senator Grant?" Fitz said is a seductive whisper as he pulled her close.

"Oh my god it turns me on so much when you call me that" Mellie whispered as she gave his ass a tight squeeze.

"Well I better get you cleaned up Madame Senator" Fitz whispered as she poured some body wash onto his hands before rubbing it in every nook and crannies of his wife's body. Mellie would then go on to do the same, spending the next 20 minutes enjoying all the different parts of her husband. When they were finally done they exited the shower and grabbed fluffy white towels and dried each other off. Once they were dry they headed to separate sides of their walk in closet. As Mellie pulled on her black lace bra and matching panties she caught Fitz sneaking glances at her in the mirror. She giggled as she walked over to the side of the closet and put on a form fitting navy skirt with sheer tights a white collared shirt and a form blue blazer. After she finished getting dressed she headed back into the bathroom and over to her sink. Mellie wanted to thank whoever had come up with the idea of double vanities because they were a god send. There was no way she and Fitz could get ready with one sink so she was so happy that they had two. As she walked over to her sink she opened up the cabinet and started her makeup while Fitz began to shave.

"So yesterday some young mom in Karen's swim class called me a fommy" Fitz said

"A what?" Mellie asked confused at what he was talking about.

"A fommy it stands for father mommy, apparently it's some millennial term for stayed home dads" Fitz explained

"Wow I had no clue what that is yet somehow they want me to connect to millennials ... I'm so screwed" she said with a frown

"Hey ... You'll be fine... As long as you try your hardest that's all that matters." Fitz said with a smile as he began to brush his teeth

"Thanks baby ... Hey wait a second is that my toothbrush?" Mellie asked

"I don't know ...is it?" he said staring at the toothbrush in his hand

"Yes it is"

"Well it was on my side"

"Fitz that's disgusting"

"Come on we've exchanged plenty of fluids" He said as he leaned in to try to kiss her as she tried to break free.

"No ... no ...no ...no ... toothpaste it's all sticky " she complained as he continued to kiss her sliding his hands lower and lower before she swatted his hand away. "It's late I have to finish getting ready and you have to go wake up Jerry" Mellie pointed out

"Fine but we will finish this later mark my words" he whispered as he left the bathroom. Mellie quickly finished her makeup and began blow drying her hair before leaving the bathroom and heading downstairs. By the time she got downstairs she found Fitz and Jerry in the kitchen.

"Morning snuggle bug" Mellie said as she walked into the kitchen and planted a kiss on Jerrys forehead which he quickly wiped away. As Mellie playfully ruffled her son's hair she sat down on the stool next to him.

"Hey buddy you want me to feed you?" Mellie asked

"No I'm a big boy I don't need feeding" he said with such determination that Mellie had to laugh a little bit

"Fine but just hurry up buddy we don't want you to be late to school" Mellie said as she pulled out her phone and started checking her emails. A minute later Fitz set down a plate of eggs in front of her.

"Wow these look really professional" Mellie said admiring the nearly perfect eggs

"Yeah well you should see what I'm cooking for dinner" Fitz said

"Oh I'm not going to be here for diner, remember I have that weird secretive invitation thing tonight"

"Oh yeah I forgot ... Maybe I'll just do pizza tonight then"

"Okay I'm sorry about this thing I just well I'm really curious what this secretive diner is"

"Oh no I get it ... have fun"

"Okay great, so who wants to take him to school today?"

"Why don't you, Karen and I have Mommy and me music class at 10 so you should take him today" Fitz explained

"But Daddy you're not a mommy" Jerry pointed out

"Well the people who run it are letting me go even though I'm a daddy" Fitz explained

"But your still a daddy" Jerry pointed out

"Yeah well why don't " Mellie explained

"Okay mommy" Jerry said with a smile

"Hey buddy why don't you go but your shoes on so mommy can take you to school" Fitz said as he picked Jerry up off a stool and set the little boy down on the floor as he ran towards the mudroom to put on his shoes.

"Hey I'm just going to go upstairs and say goodbye to Karen" Mellie said as she left the kitchen and headed down the hallway, she walked up the stairs and towards her little girl's room. She slowly opened the door and entered the room. Karen's room was massive with light pink walls and dark drown hardwood floors. Karen had a huge pink bed with a canopy that she loved oh so much. Mellie walked over to the bed and where her little girl was wrapped in thick pink sheets and a fluffy white comforter. As Mellie walked over she picked up some of Karen's stuffed animals that had fallen off the bed. She slowly leaned down and planted a kiss on her daughters forehead

"I love you sweetie" Mellie whispered as she left the room and closed the door leaving it a crack open just the way Karen liked it. She quickly headed downstairs and put on her coat before heading into the mudroom where Jerry was sitting on the bench while Fitz Velcro'd his shoes. As Fitz finished he slowly stood up

"There you go buddy all done" Fitz said as he ruffled the little boy's hair

"Thank you daddy" Jerry said as he jumped off the bench and grabbed his star wars backpack before heading towards the car.

"I gotta go ... have a good day daddy" Mellie said with a smirk as she quickly stood up on her tippy toes and planted a kiss on his lips before heading out of the house and into the garage and opening the door of the white range rover before forcing Jerry to sit in his booster seat despite his complains. As she then climbed into the driver's seat she reached back and turned on the DVD player playing the minions movie that Jerry loved oh so much. She slowly pulled out of the driveway and drove down the residential D.C. streets. She drove down the streets towards the center of the city where jerry attended Preschool.

Jerry's preschool was located at the St. Barts church in downtown D.C. This church was only 3 blocks from the capital and was extremely popular for the children of senators, congressmen, and lobbyists. It was a great school that was extremely exclusive to get into. Of course it helped that Jerry had a parent who was a senator but that still didn't change the fact that it was an extremely exclusive school that required an interview to get in. Jerry was also lucky in the sense that he had started here when he was 4 years old so he was much more talkative and much beter at acing the interview. Karen on the other hand would be applying to this school when she was only 2 so she would have to work harder to get in to the school. Mellie didn't want to think about this quite yet though, she didn't want to think about her little girl growing up. She slowly drove down Wisconsin Avenue as she pulled into the parking lot of the massive St. Bart's church. As she parked the car she unstrapped Jerry from his booster seat and pulled the little boys hat back on his head. She then helped him out of the car before she locked it and held his hand leading him towards the large oak door that led to the preschool section of the church. As Mellie held the little boys hand he began to talk to her.

"Mommy ... I did something bad" Jerry said as his lip began to quiver his eyes began to well up with tears

"What do you ... What do you mean sweetie?" Mellie asked as she knelt down to her little boy's level;

"Mommy ... yesterday I was running in the house and I stepped of Karen's Barbie and the head fell off and I'm so sorry mommy" Jerry said as he began to sob huge crocodile tears his face quickly turning puffy and red

"Oh baby come here don't cry its okay sweetie" Mellie said as she hugged the little boy close slowly rubbing his back trying to calm him down.

"You're not mad mommy?" Jerry asked in between sobs

"Oh of course I'm not mad sweetheart, I know it was an accident and I promise I'll buy Karen a new doll so she won't even know what happened." Mellie said slowly as she lifted her little face to meet his eyes

"Maybe you don't have to buy a new one, maybe you can just fix this one" Jerry said innocently as he pulled out the decapitated doll

"Jerry sweetheart why do you have this?" Mellie asked as she pulled the broken doll into her hands

"I thought I could take one of the glue sticks from my teacher and glue it" Jerry said with a forlorn look

"Oh that is so sweet buddy, you are such a great big brother and you know what when you get home I promise there will be a new doll for Karen and a new toy for you" Mellie said as the little boys face lit up

"Really?"

"Yeah I think you deserve it so when daddy picks you up you guys can go to the toy store okay"

"Okay mommy ... thank you ... Now wets go I don't wanna be late" The little boy said as he grabbed his mother's hand and started dragging her towards the door. He struggled to push open the massive door so Mellie helped him push and after a second it opened. They walked down the hallway past some of the classrooms with other kids, they headed to the classroom where Jerry had class. Mellie walked up a flight of stairs they headed to the door to which she slowly pushed open to the large door.

The room was massive with massive cathedral ceilings. The room had light cream walls and dark hardwood floors. In the back left corner near the window there was a set of massive oak bookshelves filled with books along with a carpet made of colorful carpet squares. On top of the carpet square was a gray sectional that the kids loved to sit at during story time. On the other side of the room were multiple round tables for the kids to sit at as well as on the wall where there was a massive smart board that the kids loved oh so much. In the back of the classroom was five MacBook computers and a cart of iPad minis for the kids. This school was so fancy and elite that it was chock full of technologies to help the kids learn. As Mellie looked through the room she saw about 10 little four year old kids. As they entered the room Mellie helped him hang his coat and backpack in his cubie. A second later the main teacher Michelle Sawyer walked up to them.

"Hi Ms. M" Jerry said

"Hey buddy ... what's up?" Michelle asked as she gave him a fist bump

"Nothin"

"Oh yeah ... Well how about you say goodbye to mommy and then you and Alex can go build another one of those awesome block tower"

"Okay ... Bye bye mommy... I love you" Jerry said with a smile as he ran towards the area where a little blond haired boy was playing with blocks

"Oh um he was a little emotional this morning to just to warn you" Mellie said

"Oh okay well thanks for the heads up, kids can always be a handful when their cranky"

"Yeah well thank you, I'm gonna go now" Mellie said as she waved goodbye to Jerry before she left the room and headed down the stairs and through the hallway towards the door to the outside. As she left the school she got back into her car and drove the range rover towards the capital. 10 minutes later she arrived in the private parking Garage for the senators. Most senators didn't have cars because they didn't live in D.C, but luckily there was still a space for her to park in the parking garage. Once she had parked she got out of the car and headed to the towards the special senator elevator. As she clicked the buttons of the elevator the large doors opened and Mellie entered the elevator she scanned her key card I.D before clicking the 3rd button. As she stood in the elevator she took out her phone and opened the CNN news app checking the morning's top stories. A second latter the doors opened revealing the long marble halls of the capital. As Mellie got out of the elevator she entered the hallway and walked towards her senate office. For two months after being sworn in, her office wasn't ready so they were stuck in the basement of the capital until they were finally moved up to the office for the senator. The offices in the senate where quite large, much larger than the ones for the house rep's. Mellie's office was three rooms , when you entered the door you got into the first room which was medium sized and contained leather sofa's for people to sit in while they waited as well as desk where Sloane the receptionist sat. Sloane was tall with dirty blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore modern nerdy glasses along with a fitted back blazer and a white shirt along with black jeans and red heel's. Sloane was a recent Georgetown graduate who wanted the government experience of working for a senator. She sat at that desk and answer phones, made copies and set up meetings. Once past that room there were two doors on one side and one on the other. One the one side there was a door to the small conference room that Mellie would hold meeting in as well as the door to the room where her staff had their desks. On the other side was her private office. With its light walls and hardwood desk her office was the epitome of sophistication. In her office there was a whole closet full of Kid's toys for when Jerry and Karen came to visit. As Mellie walked into her office she smiled at Sloane.

"Good morning Senator, so you have to read those briefings on your desk by 10 because the committee meeting is at 10:15. Then at 11 you have the meeting with the offshore lobbyists, you have an interview on the budget deal at 2:00, you have the meeting with Senator Milton at 3:30 then you have some free time before you have that weird invitation meeting at 6:00."

"Wow that's it" Mellie said sarcastically

"Yeah it's a busy day, you should get started on the briefings because there were like fifteen of them"

"Oh god wish me luck" Mellie said as she entered her office sat down at the mahogany desk and began to read through the mind numbingly boring files.

XXXX

6 hours later:

She was finally done. After 6 straight hours of events and interviews and meetings she was finally done. She had read through the documents and attended the meeting, she had talked to CNN she had talked to Senator Milton. This job was so busy and exhausting but she loved it. It was so fulfilling to feel like she was actually making a difference in people's lives. As she sat at the desk she realized she haden't eaten anything all day. She was about to ask Sloane to get her something when Abby entered the room and sat on the edge of her desk.

"Ugh my new landlord just called there's a gas leak at the apartment"

"Oh my god but ... you can't move in right like I mean if it's going to blow up" Mellie pointed out

"Yeah so now I'm stuck at the hotel for another three weeks" Abby complained

"Well I mean if you wanted to you stay with me and Fitz for a couple weeks I mean until your apartment is ready" Mellie suggested

"Live with you in the suburbs? What am I old?"

"Oh I'm sorry if my massive tastefully decorated colonial home is such a horror"

"No it's not I just feel like it's so lame"

"Wow did you just say lame? What are you ten?" Mellie teased

"Ugh you're so mean... and fine I'll come stay with you but you cannot expect me to change your kid's diapers"

"Wow feel the love"

"I'm sorry but were not all like you and Fitz, we don't all have mother genes"

"Fitz has the mother gene?"

"Oh please don't go all P.C on me we both know Fitz is like a mother on steroids, he doesn't spend a second away from the kids and neither do you, I mean last week when we flew to California you called three times before we left and you had Fitz send you hundreds of photos of him and the kids watching a movie, he literally sent photos of them watching Frozen, hundreds of photos you are obsessed with your kids and I am not a child person"

"Okay well call me in 5 years when you have a kid and you'll be acting differently" Mellie said with a frown

"Oh god ew no I'm never having children" Abby said her voice layered with disgust

"Okay well have fun with that while I text Fitz and remind him that he needs to buy Karen a new Barbie because Jerry decapitated the old one."

"Oh my god your life is weird" Abby said with a giggle as she exited the office. After that Mellie texted Fitz before going out to Starbucks and getting Coffee and a late lunch. She then returned to the capital and continued to look over the educational reform bill. She let most of her staff go home as she continued to work up until 20 minutes before she was due at that meeting that she had been invited to by suspicious circumstances. She walked back into the reception area she and headed over to Sloane's desk.

"Hey Sloane do you know where that 8:00 meeting is?"

"Um looks like it's hallway B down stairs in the basement" Slone said checking the schedule on the computer

"Wow a meeting at 8:00 in the basement, I think you might be murdered tonight" Abby teased

"Wow thank you for those kind words of encouragement Abby" Mellie said sarcastically as she suddenly began to feel a little bit nervous about the meeting. After about 5 minutes of nervous pacing she headed downstairs towards the meeting. As she walked down the marble halls she felt her palms begin to sweat as she noticed how empty the hallway seemed. As she headed down to the basement she began to feel more and more nervous. Part of her wanted to leave, to head upstairs and not come pack to this creepy part of the building. As she arrived at the door she stared down at her watch and noticed she was about at minute early. As she stared around the dimly lit hallway she suddenly saw Senator Jane Scott who was a 55 year old junior senator from Maine who had just been elected this year just like Mellie.

"Wait are you here for this meeting as well?" Jane asked

"Oh yeah thank god you're here I was so nervous" Mellie admitted

"I know ... this feels like some kind of sorority cult" Jane said with a weak smile

"Well I guess we should just go for it" Mellie said as she knocked on the large wood door. After a moment of waiting the door slowly opened and the senator from Arizona opened the door to reveal a large library like room with mahogany paneling. In the room which was dimly lit by a fire place sat about 15 women as Mellie examined them she could tell they were all senators except for one or two who were house representatives.

"Welcome ladies" the senator from New York said

"Um Hi ... What is this?" Mellie asked confused

"This is a meeting for female senate democrats, were usually not tis secretive but this meeting is very important"

"Oh okay what is so important exactly?" Mellie asked

"Well as you know the bill to defund Planned Parenthood is about to reach the senate floor and it is so unbelievably close that if we filibuster we will have a fighting chance of stopping this retched bill" The senator explained

"I mean we need someone to do it but I can't be about half of us because were to old, we need someone who can stand for at least ten hours" someone piped up

"Can someone even do that?" Someone else added

"They've done it before" someone else said

"Well who will it be?" Someone asked

"We need to pick now so we can get it ready" Someone else chimed in

"I could be me" Mellie said softly as silence filled the room and everyone turned towards her as the color drained from her face. "I mean if you need someone I'm young and I have pretty great endurance and I mean if any of you wanted to do it instead that's totally fine I mean your all more qualified and ... forget I said anything" Mellie said as she began to feel nervous

"Actually it's not a bad idea, she's young she's a perfect face of the party it could work" One of the senators said

"She could do it but it won't be easy, you'd have to stand for so long and it will be hard and people will reticule you and it will not be easy" Another one of the senators chimed in

"Well I want to do it and I think I can" Mellie said with an optimistic smile

"Well then senator are you ready to take on the entire Republican Party?"


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys so here's the next chapter, by reading your comments I can tell you want some fluffy family time , so I promise you I will write a couple of chapters of nothing but fluff. It's funny, with most of my stories I would struggle to get to 1,000 words, but for some reason this story comes so easily to me. I can't believe that this chapter actually has 10,000 words. Sorry for the speech I'm just really excited. Anyway hope you enjoy :)

XXXX

2 months later:

Her perfectly manicured hand grabbed the brushed nickel doorknob as she pushed open the lark oak front door of the house holding one hand high above her head trying not to let the dry cleaning drag on the floor as she walked down the flagstone pathway towards the car. As she stepped down onto the concrete driveway she could feel the heat radiating from the concrete onto her bare feet. As she walked over to the trunk of the car she reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the car key. Attached to the car key, was the key to the house in D.C., the house in Santa Barbra and the apartment in San Francisco as well as a little blue ugly doll keychain. Whenever they were at the toy store Jerry would always love to look at ugly dolls and so for his birthday they had bought him three average sized ones and one giant one. The giant one was blue with a giant pink nose and two adorable eyes, it had also come with this identical keychain which now resided on the keys to the range rover. She pulled out the key and fumbled with the buttons trying to make sure that she didn't hit the alarm button. Her other arm began to get sore with holding the dry cleaning so high up, and she considered putting it down so she could open the trunk. She decided against it though because she didn't want the just bought, newly dry cleaned outfits to get dirty or she would never hear the end of it from her mother. Finally she was able to click the right button as she stepped back as to not have the opening trunk hit her in the face. That was another thing she didn't need tomorrow, a massive bruise on her face. She began to giggle as she remembered that a few days before their wedding Fitz had had his blood drawn at the doctor's office and on the way out he ended up fainting , hitting his head on the sidewalk. Long story short he had ended up having to wear a ton of cover-up on their wedding day since he had a monster bruise on her forehead. A smile filled her face as she thought about her wedding day. She remembered that mix of fear and excitement, wondering if she was making the right choice. She remembered her mother that day, she had spent hours lecturing Mellie about how awful men were and that her getting married was an awful idea. Her mother's constant fear mongering had gotten her so worked up about the wedding that she considered just running away and skipping the whole thing. She was actually on her way towards the car when she ran into Abby who convinced her to stay. Abby reminded her about how much she loved Fitz and how they were mean to be together. She also reminded Mellie how lonely she was as a child, and how she shouldn't let her mother take away her chance at happiness. As she looked back on that day, Mellie was so glad that she had listened to Abby's advice and married Fitz, he had made her happier then she had ever thought possible. He had filled her life with love and happiness. He had given her two beautiful children, he had loved her and worshiped her and made her the happiest person in the world.

She continued to think about this as she opened the trunk and moved some bags out of the way to make room to lay the dry cleaning down in the trunk. She considered hanging the clothes on one of those handles on the side of the car, but she decided against it because she didn't want them to block Fitz's vision when he was driving. As she closed the trunk she turned around to see her neighbor John Stenson walking his two English Terriers.

"Morning Mellie" He called as he waved to her

"Morning" she said with a smile as she waved back with a smile

"Maybe we should get a dog" Fitz said as he walked up behind her and pulled a duffle of his shoulder and placed it on the pavement

"Yeah right like we have time for a dog?" Mellie asked as she rolled her eyes.

"We do, I mean I do, I mean I will. In the fall Karen's going to start preschool and I'm going have tons of extra time with nothing to don't so why don't we make the kids happy and get a dog that can fill my time"

"Well we could get a dog or you could just go back to practicing law" Mellie suggested

"Ugh I hated law, I only went to law school because I was trying to impress a girl I liked" he said with a smile

"Oh really, so how'd it work out with the girl?" Mellie asked

"Well I was right to go to law school because I started dating that girl and after three years of all-nighter's and history professors and notes in class I finally asked her to marry me. And after a really dorky proposal she said yes. And finally we got married and we had two amazing babies and we moved all around the country and every day I fall more and more in love with the girl, and she has made me happier than I ever thought possible and I love her and I love the babies she gave me and I love the way I feel when I with her... I'm so glad I went through law school because those four years of studying and work was all worth it for the lifetime of happiness that I got with this girl." Fitz said

"Wow she sounds like some girl" Mellie said with a smirk

"Oh she is" he said seductively as he walked over to her and began making out like there was no tomorrow.

"You realize the neighbors are probably watching us right now" she muttered as he continued to assault her neck

"Well why don't we go finish this inside"

"Ugh I wish but I have to get the kids breakfast and finish packing if we want to get to my mom's on time."

"Or we could just skip your mom's and stay here the whole weekend and bone"

"Believe me I would love nothing more, but I mean it is her 65th birthday and you know how she loves to parade around the prodigal daughter like some kind of show pony" Mellie said as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh Mellie ... It always warms my heart to hear about how much you love and admire your mother."

"Oh please like you didn't despise your father ... and I mean she not that bad she's just , she's made a lot of mistakes that she never tried to make up for" Mellie explained

"Yeah well who knows maybe 65 will be the year of amends"

"I doubt it" Mellie said with a chuckle as she let go of his and headed back inside the house. Once she got back inside she headed to the kitchen

"Jerry Karen Breakfast!" she yelled hoping the kids heard her. She knew they had because a second later she heard the sound of four little feet running down the stairs. A second later they were barreling into the kitchen each one sliding with their socks on the hard wood floor.

"Oh now don't run" Mellie said as she worried about the kids slipping and hurting themselves. Jerry didn't slow down but Karen did a little.

"Hey sweetie how are you this morning?" Mellie asked as she waked over to Karen and picked her up , planting a kiss on the little girls cheek.

"Ready for breakfast?" Mellie asked as she set the little girl down in the high chair

"I hope you guys are hungry" she said with a smile as she walked over to the counter and grabbed the two sippy cups for the kids

"Here you go my little man, here's your yellow one and here you go Karen, here's your purple one" she said as she placed a cup in front of each kid

"I want the purple one" Jerry exclaimed as he reached out to try to grab it

"The purple one is her's honey" Mellie explained

"I want it"

"I want it" the kids said a the exact same time

"Well Jerry it's her's, you can have it tomorrow okay"

"No! I want it now!" he said as he began to bang his hands into the table

"Jerry calm down" Mellie said as she tried to stop the tantrum before it started

"NO I want it now!" he screamed as his face began to turn red

"But its mine!" Karen whimpered as she started to cry, Mellie knew that she had to fix this now, before it spiraled out of control.

"Hey okay Jerry listen to me! How about you let Karen have the purple one today, and then you get to pick the first movie we get to watch in the car ... okay"

"Okay fine but only if we can watch star wars"

"Oh no sweetie that movies too violent for your sister, how about something else like Shrek?"

"I don't like Shrek, I wanna watch Star Wars!"

"No sweetie we can't watch that, how about we watch despicable me? You always love that movie"

"I only like the second one"

"Well then let's watch the second one"

"But if we don't watch the first one then you'll be confused" Jerry explained

"Oh well I've already seen the first one sweetie" Mellie explained with a giggle

"Really?"

"Yeah remember, me, you, daddy and sissy all went to see it last month remember"

"Oh yeah I remember that ... let's watch it"

"Okay great now can you please let go of the bottle?" Mellie asked as she reached for the purple bottle as jerry loosened his grip on the bottle, letting Mellie hand the bottle back to Karen. After that Mellie went over to the toaster and prepared some of the miny frozen toaster waffles. The kids loved these and they were easy to make. After they were ready she heated up the butter and the syrup and before pouring it all over the kid's waffles. While the kids devoured their food Mellie checked her emails on her phone. That was the hard thing about being a senator, the work never stops. Mellie was lucky that she was even able to go to the party this weekend, considering that for the past 6 weekends she had had to go back to California for events and fundraisers. It would be nice to have one weekend with Fitz and the kids before it she went back to being away every weekend. She finished checking her emails before walking over to the fridge and grabbing herself a blueberry Greek yogurt. A few minutes later she and the kids had finished their breakfast.

"Hey guys lets go upstairs and brush your teeth before we leave"

"Where are we going mommy?" Jerry asked

"Were going to grandma's house"

"Really!? Are we gonna see horsies?" Jerry asked

"Yeah we can see some of the horses" Mellie said as a massive smile filled the kids face.

"Yay Horsies!" Karen squealed in delight as she accidentally knocked over her sippy cup. Luckily the lid kept the orange juice at bay while Mellie quickly leaned over and propped it before any of it spill. After that she picked Karen up and balanced her on her hip

"Jerry baby come one we gotta go upstairs and brush your teeth"

"Okay mama" he said as he hopped off the chair and ran down the hallway towards the stairs. Mellie followed suit with Karen in her arms. They headed up the stairs, jerry headed to his bathroom which was attached to his bedroom as Mellie took Karen to the hall bathroom that the little girl used. Mellie sat the little girl grabbed placed the little girl on the edge of the counter as she grabbed the sleeping beauty toothbrush off the counter and covered the bristles with globby white toothpaste. Both Karen and Jerry used special non fluoride toothpaste that was okay for kids who didn't understand yet that they had to spit it out. Mellie instructed a very squirmy Karen to open her mouth as she rested one hand on the little girl's hip stopping her from falling off the counter. After a few minutes of brushing Mellie helped her rinse before wiping Karen's mouth with a wash cloth. After throwing the cloth in the hamper she picked Karen up and carried her into Jerrys room where she set her down on his red race car bed. She looked up through the open door to see Jerry standing on his Thomas the train engine foot stool in front of the marble vanity, brushing his teeth.

"Hey buddy which stuffed animals do you want to bring to Grandma's house?" she asked as she picked a few stuffed animals up off the floor

"I want Cowwie and big toe and Lammy and blankie and Rory the rhino and Ellie the elephant and ... that it"

"Thank god" Mellie muttered under her breath as she suddenly heard the sound of tiny snores as she looked down at the bed to see Karen lying fast asleep on the bed. Karen was so funny when she slept , because she did this thing in which she sucked her thumb and with her other hand she would twirl her hair , she had been like this since she was a baby and if she wasn't doing that then she would never fall asleep. For a second Mellie just stared at the little girl calmly sleeping as she performed her usual routine of thumb sucking and hair twirling. Suddenly Mellie was snapped out of her trance by Fitz's voice

"You ready to go?" he asked as she turned around to see Fitz standing in the doorway of Jerry's room with the go bag in his hand. The go bag was a massive black bag that they put everything in. It heled toys, books, snacks, stuffed animals, Band-Aids and changes of clothes. It was always funny to Mellie that only a few years ago she would leave the house with nothing more than her credit card, but now she couldn't leave without hours of planning and countless bags full of stuff. As tedious as it was to always be packing random things for a million random situations, with two little kids you had to be ready from everything.

"Yeah almost ... Um can you just take her out to the car?" Mellie asked motioning to the little girl sleeping on the bed"

"Um well my hands are a little too full for that" he said motioning to the bag in his hand.

"Okay fine then I'll take her to the car but can you just grab some stuffed animals for Jerry? She asked as she carefully pick up Karen and walked towards Fitz

"Yeah of course ... by the way have I told you , you look fantastic today" he said as rested his hand on her hip letting it slide down , his fingers slowly caressing the edge of her ass.

"Oh yeah well you look pretty sexy too" she whispered seductively as she leaned in and began to kiss him.

"Ew mommy daddy stop" Jerry wined as Mellie pulled back with a giggle

"Sorry sweetie" she said with a smile as she left the room. Once she got downstairs she headed to the basement so she could grab some headphones before heading out to the car. Once Mellie got out to the car she carefully strapped a sleeping Karen in her car seat before wrapping the little girl in a blanket before placing the noise cancelling headphones on her to try to keep her from waking up. After that , Mellie headed back inside to go the bathroom and grab her purse before heading back to the car and sitting in the passenger seat. A few minutes Jerry walked out to the car and climbed into the car sitting on his booster seat as she asked Mellie for help setting up the DVD player. After a few uncomfortable minutes of her leaning back into the back row fiddling with the DVD player, she finally figured it out, setting up Despicable Me 2 much to Jerrys excitement. After a few minutes Fitz got into the car and settled into the driver's seat before hitting the gas and pulling out of the driveway.

XXXX

9 hours later:

It wasn't supposed to take this long. Usually the drive from D.C to Ashville was only about six or seven hours, but today it had taken them nine and they weren't even there yet. That was the problem with traveling with kids, it seemed like every ten seconds they needed something. Karen's sleeping was short lived because only minutes after leaving the house Jerry got all punchy and decided it was a good idea to poke Karen till she woke up. The lack of sleep had made Karen cranky beyond belief. She began crying and screaming and throwing things, Jerry began to feel sick and Mellie got a serious headache. Altogether they had stopped seven times for things ranging from lunch to diaper changes to throwing out a barf bag. Finally after nine stressful hectic tedious hours they were finally getting close. Mellie could tell they were close when she began to see the tops of her native Blue Ridge Mountains. Mellie had been born in Ashville at her family's massive estate. The Caraway estate had been built in the early 1800's by Mellie's great great great grandfather. Mellie's family had made their money in logging in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains hundreds of years ago. They had increased their wealth through shipping and banking, and also some less pure methods mainly slavery. While the rest of her family had been extremely blasé about the family's slave past, Mellie had always felt guilty about it. Anyway, it didn't matter in the south how you made your money as long as I was old money. You see the social classes of the south ad been determined years ago as the great families of the south bred and schemed for power. The Caraways were a perfect example of that, a blue blooded family constantly breading with other families in order to preserve their wealth and social class. Mellie's father Benjamin Caraway had been the only child and heir to the caraway fortune. As a teenager and young adult he was rebellious, he was a womanizer who would burn through cash on lavish parties and call girls. He was the true black sheep of the family causing his parents grief with his reckless party ways. They decided to take control of the situation by giving him an ultimatum, he would both settle down, get married and carry on the family name or else they would cut him off from his beloved trust fund. In order to exert even more control over the situation they had already picked out the perfect wife, the wealthy young debutant Katherine Thorne. Katherine was a 29 year old fellow blue blood, the youngest daughter of the famed Thorne family. She was extremely wealthy with a massive dowry that the Caraway's loved. Finally after much badgering from his parents Ben finally caved in and agreed to marry Katherine. Even though they were married they couldn't have been farther apart, she was young at only 29 years of age while he was already in his late 30. As there "Marriage" continued, she used the title to become the queen bee of Ashville social life while he carried on his affairs. After four years of marriage the Caraway's became terrified that they would never have a grandchild to carry on the family name. So again they threatened to cut their son off, and exactly nine months later they were cradling their perfect blue blooded granddaughter. Growing up Mellie had been the panicle of a Sothern belle, the only daughter and heir to the family dynasty she was primped and prepared for a life of party's and fundraisers and power. Mellie had grown up at the massive Caraway estate under the watch of maid's nanny's and housekeepers. Her entire life her mother had been throwing parties and events trying to keep up her perfect public profile. Mellie's father on the other hand was often away on business but would always bring back gifts and toys and candy for his daughter. Even though he hadn't wanted to have her, once she was born he feel in love. She was his little girl, the apple of his eye who he would dote on. When her mother would have her fancy dinner parties and she would force Mellie to eat early in the staff's kitchen so she wouldn't get in the way, her father would sneak down and give her candy. All of her father's love and affection had blinded Mellie to not be able to see her father's indiscretions. In the south, people did not want to be on the wrong side of the town's gossip so they buried their family's secrets. It seemed like everyone in the family had known about her father's affairs except for her.

Mellie had heard some rumors about her father but she had never believed it until winter break of 8th grade. That winter she had gone with her prep school model U.N club to Switzerland and when she returned everything was different. From the second that she arrived back from the airport she knew something was wrong. Her main nanny at the time, Rose had gone to the station to pick her up. This was extremely strange because the driver Peter was always the one to pick her up from places. Instead Rose was there to pick her up. Rose guided her to the car and instead of driving she stayed parked in the parking lot as she began to talk to Mellie , slowly explaining that her father had been in a relationship with someone else and that her mother had kicked her father out of the house. The second that Rose said this, it was like Mellie had been hit with a ton of bricks, she couldn't move she couldn't breathe she was in shock. She didn't want to believe it, she loved her father and she couldn't fathom that he would ever do this. Before Rose could say or do anything, Mellie shoved open the door of the car and ran away as fast as she could. She just kept running until she knew that Rose could no longer see her. She ran until she found a friendly truck driver who was willing to give her a ride to the outskirts of town where the Edminster house was. The Edminster house was a smaller home that her family owned. Once the driver dropped her off she ran down the long windy driveway to the front of the house where she rang the doorbell. After a second her heart was shattered when the door was opened by no one else but her father's secretary Tiffany. She was standing in the doorway in a tight neon pink leather skirt along with a tight sheer reveling green top and in her arms was a little blond baby The second Mellie saw the baby she felt like she was going to faint. With her green eyes and pail skin she could tell without a doubt that it was her father daughter. Suddenly Mellie heard her father's voice booming through the house

"Baby who is it?" He bellowed as he walked into the foyer shocked to see Mellie standing in the doorway

"Go inside I'll handle this" he muttered as he exited the house and closed the door behind him

"What are you doing here? Did Katherine send you?" he asked visibly annoyed

"What... No mom didn't send me"

"Well then why are you here?" he asked getting even more annoyed

"Why am I here? I'm here because I got home from Europe and I find out that you and mom are getting divorced and I... I can't believe you didn't tell me" she said as she eyes welled up in tears

"You know what I can't believe, that you're so stupid, I never loved your mother, but I love tiffany and I love our baby"

"Your baby?"

"Yes my little harmony"

"Harmony ... You didn't" Mellie said as she felt the hot wet tears sting her face, it was bad enough that he had a secret love child, but naming her Harmony was something else.

"Of course I did, It was the perfect name for my perfect girl ... I love harmony in ways I never loved you, just like I love Tiffany in ways that I never loved your mother."

"How could you do this? How could you do this to our family?" she asked as the tears continued to roll down her face

"Our family was built on lies, this is a family built on love , this is my family now and I'm sorry but you're not a part of it" and with that he shut the door leaving her alone in the frigid outside air as her whole body began to shake. This felt like a bed dream, but no matter how hard she pinched herself she wasn't waking up. After a couple minutes of crying she finally composed herself just long enough to call for peter the driver to pick her up. The entire drive home she was silent just staring out the window trying to process what the hell had just happened. When they finally got home Mellie could see all the staff just watching her as she walked inside and up towards her room In the hallway Mellie ran into her mother but she was so disgusted she couldn't even look at her , all Mellie did was just head towards her palatial bedroom , climb under the covers and cry. She would cry for days, she would cry till she had no more tears left, she had loved her father and he had betrayed her. One night after 3 full days of crying, she was so hungry that she had to go downstairs. In the middle of the night she crept downstairs and headed towards the kitchen. On her way down she saw a light on in the office. The door was a crack open, and she could hear the conversation. She could hear her mother on the phone with who she assumed to be her grandparents. As she listened she couldn't believe what she was hearing, she had heard her mother say "He needs to come home now before people start talking" was the one line that had always stuck with Mellie. From the second that she heard it, she felt sick. She couldn't believe her mother would forgive her father just in order to save her reputation. She knew thought that it was something that any southern woman would do, they would put their reputation before their happiness and that was something Mellie could never get on board with. Instead, that conversation helped open her eyes to the toxicity of the south. After that moment she stopped crying, she stopped sulking and she began applying to northern boarding schools. She was already planning on going to boarding school, but never one in the north , all southern girls stayed south except for her. She had applied to schools like Andover, Exeter and Choke. In the end she ended up attending Andover, and just in time. You see once the trophy wife vultures heard the news about her father everyone started looking at her different and gossiping about her and she was so glad that she could finally get away and go somewhere where nobody knew her. Suddenly Mellie was snapped out of her trance by the sound of Fitz's voice.

"Mel's you okay?"

"Yeah ... I'm just thinking" she said as she continued to look out the window, running her finger down the cold hard glass.

"Thinking about what? He asked

"The past" she said as she continued to look out the window, Fitz slowly took his hand and rested it on her knee

"I know it's hard coming home but it's only a few days, and I'm here and the kids are here and were going to help you get through it" he said as he squeezed her knee.

"I know ... It's going to be okay, it's all going to be okay" she said with a week smile

"Good because were here" he said as he pointed to the massive wrought iron gate that separated the Caraway estate from the rest of the world. As they drove up to the gate, Mellie entered the pin and was buzzed in. Slowly the gate opened and they began the drive towards the house. The house had the quintessential long southern driveway framed by hundreds of beautiful she tree's. As you drove down the long driveway the massive mansion finally came into focus. The Caraway house had been built in the early 1800's and renovated over the years. As one of the oldest and largest homes I the south it contained 15 bedrooms 22 bathrooms , a staff's quarters , a home theater , an arts and crafts room , a green house , a pool house , 3 guest houses and a stables all scattered along the 200 acre property. As they drove down the driveway Mellie began to feel her palms sweat, she was always nervous when seeing her mother. Soon they were at the end of the driveway right in front of the massive plantation style mansion. Suddenly they heard the sound of feet on the gravel as a valet seemed to appear out of nowhere. Fitz and Mellie got out of the car and were reaching from their stuff when the valet stopped them.

"I can take your things inside"

"Oh no I don't want to add to your work load" Mellie said with a smile

"Oh it's no extra work ma'am, this is my job" he explained

"Right well okay thank you, let me just get the kids" she said as she quickly opened the door to the back seat and unstrapped Karen from her car seat as she let the little girl rest her head on her shoulder as she began to nod off . Jerry was also pretty tired and hadn't even been watching the movie for the last few hours so he didn't even notice that Fitz had turned it off. Slowly Fitz picked up Jerry who was nearly asleep as he clung to his giant blue elephant. He had gotten Ellie the elephant from Abby when he was born and now he took it with him everywhere he went. Fitz reached into the passenger's seat and grabbed the go bag shutting the door and throwing the keys to the valet. Mellie and Fitz walked towards the massive oak door each with a kid in their arms. Mellie rested her hand on the large stone doorknocker with the family crest on it. She slowly took it in her hand and began to knock. After a moment of waiting the door was suddenly opened by Ester, one of the housekeepers that had been instrumental in raising Mellie.

"Why hello Mrs. Mellie, come in come in we've been expecting you" she said with a smile

"Wow Easter you look amazing, it's so good to see you" Mellie said with a smile as she gave Ester a quick hug. They were suddenly interrupted by Katherine's booming voice echoing throughout the marble foyer

"Melody is that you?" she called as she descended the marble staircase

"Ya mom it's me" she called back as her mother got to the bottom of the stairs

"Oh Melody look at you, you've lost some weight" he bother said she began to examine her daughter causing Mellie's face to flush red

"No not really mom"

"It's a compliment Melody ... and oh lord please stop slouching its unladylike "her mother scolded

"Esther what are you doing here?" Katherine asked

"Oh I was just saying Hello to Mrs. Mellie"

"Oh ... and how do you know melody?"

"I ... I worked for you when she was growing up" Ester explained to her extremely spacy boss.

"Oh right, why don't you go on down to the kitchen and see if Carla needs some help" Katherine suggested as Rose excused herself

"Wow ... somethings never change" Mellie said with a smile

"Like this house, this town and me because of Botox" Katherine said as she chuckled dryly causing Mellie to shoot an uncomfortable glance.

"Oh Fitz you look great as always and oh look at my angles they've gotten so big Katherine said as she cooed over her grandkids trying to give them a hug.

"Oh mom please don't I just got them to sleep and I need them to take a nap so that there ready for the dinner with dad tonight"

"Oh of course you're sucking up to your father again" she said her voice icy

"Mom I ..." Mellie said speechless about what to say

"Close your mouth Melody you'll catch flies ... Relax, I'm kidding you can go see your father but you have a mama's girl at my party tomorrow okay" her mother said with a fake smile

"Okay we can do that right Mel's" Fitz said trying to defuse the situation

"Yeah we can do that" Mellie said with a weak smile as she walked away from her mother towards the staircase. As she walked up the massive staircase she found herself in the long hallways of the upstairs. She walked down the hallways towards the kids rooms. When the kids were born, her mother had had a room decorated for each kid. The rooms in the house were all massive, each one looked like something out of a pottery barn catalogue. They were expertly designed and perfect for each of the kids. While Fitz put Jerry down for his nap, Mellie headed into Karen's room and took of the little girls shoes before placing her under the covers of her Lilly Pulitzer bedspread. After planting a kiss on her daughter's forehead she headed back into the hallway where she found Fitz.

"Hey um would you want to take a walk with me, just to clear our heads for a bit" Mellie asked

"Yeah of course, I always love walking here" he said with a smile as he grabbed her hand and they headed downstairs. They headed through the massive rooms, past the drawing room, past the kitchen past the study and the billiards room until they found their way outside. Once they had traipsed thought the massive mansion they found themselves outside. The outside of the house was almost as beautiful as the inside. When you exited the massive French doors into the back yard you found yourself in a large flat area where there was an infinity pool built into the hill. The way the pool was built made it look like it went on forever. Past the pool was land as far as the eye could see. The backyard alone contained 200 rolling aces along with streams, bridges ponds, and miles of hiking trails. It also contained three guest houses and a horse stables. As they walked down the hills by the pool Mellie could see some work men setting up a massive white outdoor tent for the party tomorrow. They continued to walk down the trails and soon they came across the massive horse stable. As they walked inside the stables they saw each stall filled with beautiful purebred horses. A beautiful chocolate brown horse caught Mellie's attention as she walked over to it and began to pet its main.

"Can I help y'all?" asked a voice with a thick southern accent as Mellie and Fitz both turned around to see a young woman in beige riding pants and a plaid shirt holding a rope in her hand

"Oh um no sorry ... hi, I'm Mellie, my mom owns this house" Mellie said as she shook hands with the woman

"Oh wow so you're the famous daughter everybody's always talking about?"

"Yeah ... that's me and um this is my husband Fitz"

"Nice to meet you" Fitz said with a smile as he shook the woman's hand

"So ya'll here for this big fancy party?" the lady asked

"Oh yeah ... my mom would never let me get out of it." Mellie said with a giggle

"Yeah well ... we better get going we have that dinner soon" Mellie said reminding Fitz

"Yeah well I better get going and wrangle some horses, it was nice to meet you" she said as she walked away

"We better get back ... we don't want to be late"

XXXX

1 hour later:

After leaving the stables you they walked back towards the house. Once they got inside they headed upstairs they woke the kids from their naps and began to get them ready for dinner. Mellie put Karen in a light pink tutu and a pink long sleeved shirt with a cat on it. After that she put Karen in her tights by pulling her in the air as she pulled up the little white tights. While she got Karen ready, Fitz put Jerry in Khaki pants shorts and a light blue collared shirt . Mellie pulled on a beautiful extremely expensive light blue dress as she tried her best to look and feel confident. She didn't want to go to the dinner, she didn't want to see her father, she didn't want to see Tiffany, she didn't want to see the people who ruined her life. She knew that she had to see them, that she had to play nice so that they wouldn't badmouth her to the press but still , it was humiliating having to look at them , much less talk to them. After her father's abandonment they didn't speak for years. He hadn't been at her wedding nor was he at any of her graduations. Mellie had only reached out to him about 4 years ago when she had started to get involved in politics and she knew that she couldn't have her father ruin her career just because of their feud. So she bit the bullet and called her father. Now they would see each other once in a while much to Mellie's charging.

After they all got ready, they said goodbye to Mellie's mom and headed out to the car. After they loaded the kids and all of their stuff into the car. They drove about 15 minutes towards the old oak room a fancy Ashville steak restaurant. They drove inside and parked the car before opening the doors and pulling the kids out, Mellie holding Jerry and Fitz holding Karen as they walked inside the restaurant and up to the desk.

"Hi um reservation for Caraway I guess" Mellie said with a smile

"Oh yes of course, Mr. Caraway is already here, he's at the table in the back would you like me to show you?" the lady asked

"No I think we can find it thank you" Mellie said as they walked through the restaurant towards the back. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks as her blood went cold.

"Mel's what's wrong?" Fitz asked immediately becoming confused

"She's here" Mellie whispered still paralyzed in fear

"Who's here" Fitz asked as he looked towards the table to see a young blond woman sitting next to Ben "Oh my god is that Harmony?" Fitz asked in shock.

"Yes and we need to leave now" Mellie said as she felt herself start to hyperventilate

"Leave ... what are you talking about we just got here" Fitz said

"It doesn't matter we need to go I'm not going to dinner, I'm not sitting and smiling at Harmony, I need to go"

"Mel's you can't blow of this dinner because of Harmony"

"Yes I can and I will ... now come on lets go" She said as she quickly tried to turn around but Fitz stopped her

"Mellie you can't run from this and you can't run from her so were going"

"No were not" Mellie said but it was too late, by the time she looked up Fitz had already made his way to the table and was shaking hands with her father. All Mellie wanted to do was run away but instead she put on a fake smile and walked over towards her arch nemesis Harmony.

Ever since she saw Harmony that day 27 years ago she had hated her. Of course at that time she had had no reason to hate the little girl except for the for the fact that her father had chosen her over Mellie. Even so Mellie would always resent harmony, she would stay up late nights at boarding school trying to think of why Harmony was better than her. She could never understand why her father had chosen Harmony over her. Over the years Mellie had tried being cordial to Harmony but Harmony was anything but cordial. It was ironic that Harmony was so rich considering how awful her manners were. She would curse and smoke, she would get sloppy drunk and always wore clothes that looked like they were straight from the set of a porn. Not only that but she was mean, she would constantly yell at people especially educated people. Harmony was like a mutt in Mellie's opinion, her mother's trailer trash routes did not mix with her father's blue blood. Harmony had been a notorious bad girl all her life, even now she just bounced around from place to place feeding off her trust fund.

Mellie quickly walked toward them continuing to display her fake smile. Soon she was at the table only inches away from her father and Harmony.

"Hey guys sorry somebody was a little fussy and didn't want to come to the table" Mellie said motioning to Jerry who was in her arms.

"Oh that's okay sweetie ... it's good to see you" Her father said as he gave he a quick kiss on the cheek

"Great see you too dad oh and Harmony it's a pleasure again" Mellie said in a curt tone as she quickly slid into a seat next to Fitz before placing Jerry in the seat next to her

"So how was the flight up here?" her father asked

"Oh um we actually drove um we were going to fly but somebody is sick of spending her whole weekend flying" Fitz said with a smile as he rested his hand on her shoulder

"Oh right of course ... So how long was the drive?"

"Oh my god daddy stop talking about driving it so boring" Harmony complained

"I'm sorry baby, daddy didn't mean to upset you" Her father said as Mellie and Fitz both became very uncomfortable.

"Hey daddy I'm going to go up to the bar and do some shots" Harmony said with a wink

"Sweetie I don't think this is that kind of establishment" Her father said

"Oh please I'll I gotta do is flash these and then it's that kind of establishment" Harmony said as she pointed to her massive and clearly fake breasts as she stood up and walked towards the bar

"So you're staying at the ice queen's house?" her father asked

"Excuse me?" Mellie asked hopping that she misheard what he said

"The ice queen , that's what Tiff and I call your mother" her father explained as Mellie began to feel her face flush red with anger , Fitz could tell she was about to explode so he quickly tried to diffuse the situation by changing the topic

"So um speaking of Tiffany where she is?" Fitz asked

"Oh she's at home recuperating she just had surgery" Ben explained

"Oh my god is she okay?" Fitz asked

"Oh yes, it's not that kind of surgery, it plastic surgery, implants mostly"

"Like mother like daughter" Mellie muttered under her breath

"You know Melody I gotta say I'm disappointed in you, I mean a democrat really? I don't know where you got those ideas, maybe it's from all those northern schools you went to, I never thought those were a good idea but you know your mother wanted you as far away as possible" her father said as Mellie felt the color drain from her face, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she felt just like she felt when she was 12 years old

"You know I think going there was Mellie's choice, not her mom's" Fitz said quick to come to her wife's defense

"Oh please Fitzgerald you weren't there when Melody was growing up, her mother never wanted her around, she would make her eat in the staff's kitchen because she didn't want to spend time with her, it's just the truth Melody"

"You know what I ..." Mellie said as she was suddenly interrupted by Harmony

"Well I'm back and buzzed and starving" She said as she flopped back in her seat

"Yeah you know what let's eat" her father said as he opened his menu.

A few minutes later the waiter came by, Fitz ordered filet minion, Mellie ordered tilapia and she ordered butter pasta for both the kids. After that they continued the awful pattern of her father insulting her and harmony being extremely crass

"Mommy I'm bored" Jerry complained as he rested his head against her arm

"Oh I'm sorry buddy, but you know I think daddy might have some stuff for you to do while we wait"

"Yeah ... how about this, I have some crayons and your star wars coloring book. And for Karen I have the animal book that she can look at" Fitz said as he reached into the go bag and pulled out that stuff

"Wait do you carry that shit around with you all the time?" Harmony asked

"Oh my god, you don sat S-h-i-t in front of children" Mellie said in complete shock

"Why not?" Harmony shot back

"Because if they hear something they might repeat it" Mellie explained in an exasperated tone

"Oh please they won't say anything, I mean that one doesn't even talk, I think she might be retarded or something" Harmony said motioning to Karen who was deeply enthralled in the pictures of the book

"What are you talking about ... she's not retarded, she's two" Mellie said as she began to go into extreme mommy mode

"Just keep telling yourself that" Harmony said with a snarky smile. Mellie was about to respond before Jerry spoke up

"Mommy I have to go to the bathroom" he said

"Okay let me take you" Mellie said as she began to stand up

"You go with him to the bathroom?" Harmony scoffed

"Yes because once again he's a child" Mellie said as she stood up and carried him to the bathroom where she waited until he was done before making him wash his hands. They then headed back to the table for the rest of the awful diner. For the rest of the time her father continued to tell her about how unwanted she was and how awful her mother was and how getting divorced was the best thing that ever happened to him. With every comment he made Mellie found herself becoming more and more depressed. By the end of the dinner all she wanted was to go home, crawl under the covers and just cry. The entire ride home she was completely silent and when they got back to the house she hurried upstairs. Fitz knew something was wrong, of course something was wrong, that diner had been awful, her father was awful. Luckily for him the kids had passed out on the car ride back so he didn't need to deal their baths or bedtime storied , all he needed to do was just put them in their Pj's and then put them to bed. After that he headed to his room. As he pushed open the door he immediately knew that Mellie was not okay. She was lying under the covers facing away from him with the covers pulled above her head. As he slowly walked towards the bed he began to hear her sniffles. He slowly sat down on the edge of the bed and was surprised that he didn't turn around. After a minute of sitting there he began to speak

"You wanna talk about it?" he asked

"Not really ... I just ... I wish that he loved me" she said as she began to sob

"Shh shh don't cry I've got you I've got you, your safe, and your safe" he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as he could , trying to keep her safe and trying to erase the memory of her father's abandonment.

XXXX

It was early the next morning when Fitz awoke to find Mellie lying in his arms with her eyes closed. He began to pull his arms away when she stopped him without opening her eyes

"Stay ... please don't leave" Mellie said as her eyes remained firmly closed

"Okay don't worry I'm not going anywhere not now not ever"

"I know but I just ... every time I leave those dinners I think I couldn't possibly get worse and then at the next dinner it's worse." She said with a sigh

"Yeah well your fathers a prick so..."

"Fitz!" Mellie said a she whipped around

"What it's the truth I mean the whole diner I was just itching to beat him up for all the awful things he said"

"Oh really so then why didn't you?" Mellie asked semi serious

"Well because I don't think I can make love with you when I'm in prison and you know how much I like that"

"Did you seriously say make love?" Mellie asked as she raised an eyebrow

"What ... would you rather me say, I don't want to go prison because I can't fuck you"

"Oh god no ... go back to the love part"

"Okay ... that's what I thought, and if you really want me to beat him up just say the word"

"Your my husband you shouldn't ask me to beat him up you should just do it" she said with the first smile he had seen all day

"Okay well then let me get going" he said as he go of the bed, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the bed."

"I thought you wanted me to go beat him up?"

"Actually I would rather you just stay here, I wanna be with someone who loves me" she said in melancholy tone as she rested her head on his chest

"I get, I had the same thing with my dad, growing up all I wanted was to know why the person who was supposed to love me most in the world ... didn't. Mellie your father is a horrible person who did horrible things and a get it that you want his approval but you don't need it , he is a horrible human being and he is so blind If he can't see how beautiful and amazing and wanted you are."

"I know it just ... it hurts, it hurts to think about what he did and it hurts." she said as a singular tear rolled down her face

"I know but I think that you can't let this anchor from your past keep you from the bright lights of your future. You are an amazing and you will do great things without your father ... I need you to know that okay, and I also really need you to know how much I love you."

"I know ... and I'm going to be okay, at least for today, you know I think I have a newfound appreciation for my mom today"

"Well that's good because it's her birthday ... now let's go get ready" Fitz said with a smile.

After that they headed to the shower and got clean before putting on their clothes. Since they were in the south they needed to be as preppy as possible so Mellie had bought the whole family matching outfits. She and Karen were wearing matching dresses with the quintessential Lilly Pulitzer colors of pink and green. She had bought shorts for Fitz and Jerry which were the same pattern as her and Karen's dresses. She had also bought them bowties that matched the dresses along with plain while collared shirts. By the time they were done dressing the kids the whole family looked preppy beyond belief. Soon after they were done getting dressed the party started. The party was an extremely lavish extremely formal affair. Everyone who was anyone in the south was here. Mellie was trying her best to navigate the crowd. Since the pool was right there Mellie had to hold Karen in her arms to make sure that the little girl didn't fall into the pool. Mellie found herself moving around the crowd talking to people and schmoozing. Luckily for her, being a politician made her ready for hours of talking to people.

XXXX

7 hours later:

Finally after hours of talking and drinking and socializing the party was finally winding down. As Mellie walked across the lawn under the paper lanterns towards where Fitz was standing looking at his phone. He looked up when he saw her footsteps.

"What are those" he asked pointing to the slips of paper in her hand

"These are checks for my campaign ... seems like a lot of people would love to give the maximum personal contribution in exchange for the property taxes on the California homes staying low."

"Wow they were willing to give to a democrat, that's a shocker"

"Well I'm not complaining, my senate account could use the cash"

"Well that's good ... so maybe this whole weekend wasn't a total fail overall"

"Maybe it wasn't ... but still I'll be glad to get home"

"Me to ... now come on lets go upstairs and be with our two favorite people" Fitz said with a smile as he led Mellie from the lawn into the house. They said goodnight to Mellie's mother and then headed upstairs to their bedroom where they found Jerry and Karen curled up under the covers. They quickly changed into their pajamas' before climbing under the covers themselves, trying not to wake the kids. Once they were all settled in Mellie looked around to her amazing husband and two perfect kids and began to realize just how lucky she was.

XXXX

So that's the end of this chapter , I hope you enjoyed how long it was , anyway I added some of Mellie's backstory in this chapter because I think that what happened in her past has truly affected her on the show. In the last episode how Olivia kept asking about why Mellie didn't want to leave Fitz and I think it's because she's terrified of being alone because of what her parents did. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review.


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